Back to the Future
If we are to believe what we read, Twitter may well be on its last legs as Elon Musk tries to reinvent the little blue bird using the same panache that Liz Truss used to revive the British economy.
Like it or loathe it, Twitter now feels like an innovation that we just cant live without. Whilst Facebook and Instagram are still the front runners for attention seeking, self indulgent ego inflators, Twitter used correctly, gives us real time news and information on virtually anything and everything going on in this crazy old world. What will we do without it? Buy a newspaper to find out what happened yesterday? Bring back Ceefax, Oracle and the Vidiprinter? Watch England capitulate at the world cup and slag off Southgate and his tactics just to our friends and family rather than be able to spread our venomous expert views to millions of people around the world? I’m really not sure how we would survive.
It’s got me thinking, what if Musk or another of his ilk got their hands on LinkedIn and drove it off a cliff? Would we miss it? Certain industries are now massively reliant on it, mine included. However wouldn’t it be quite refreshing to have to go back to old skillsets and processes in order to network and sell? Wouldn’t it be a tad tempting to have to actually evolve a genuine business culture and associated values, rather than just putting out a post telling everyone that you have them? Just imagine having to make an appointment with a genuine specialist to provide life, business and career advice... you know someone who has actually walked the walk and not just declared themselves Master of the Universe after 8 minutes and few posted selfies.
My hunch is that the benefits outweigh the very obvious flaws but I cant help but wonder how some of us would cope if the social media mask was whipped away and we had to rely on the skills and behaviours of yesteryear. We may not have to wait for very long to find out!