social media is changing the world!

You have to watch this video. It's a TED talk. I wrote a little about TED on Monday & you can read it HERE because I'm not gonna talk more about it now. (There are SO MANY awesome TED talks that I've committed to watching at least 1 every week.)
This is the TED talk I watched this week and I think it's so huge that you have to watch it too! So the video is below. WATCH IT! & then I have my notes, thoughts, & commentary below the video. Let me know your thoughts too.

**Before you watch I'm going to share this final line from the talk that is possibly world-shaking. Especially for all of us with passions similar to mine. This line at the end of the talk seriously made me have butterflies in my stomach and get nervous like before a big game (in a good way!) Like we are on the precipice of something major... something revolutionary.

"ANYBODY who has a message they want to have heard ANYWHERE in the world... the question we all face now is 'How can we make best use of this media? Even though it means changing the way we've always done it.'" [whoa. pretty sure I'm in that category of anybody with a message I want heard anywhere in the world!]


(btw - that talk was from Clay Shirky.)
Here are the best quotes & my thoughts from the talk:

"These tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring." [so it takes a while after they "come out" before they can actually become revolutionary socially.]

"The moment our generation is living through is the largest increase in expressive capability in human history." = wow! big claim!

regarding our historical media landscape (up until end of 20th century) there was a weird asymmetry = "The media that's good at creating conversation is no good at creating groups. And the media that's good at creating groups is no good at creating conversation." [examples like phone (conversation) & TV (groups) -> but neither can really create BOTH.
***UNTIL the internet came along = the perfect medium

PLUS the internet becomes the medium for all the other media!!! (phone, movies, pictures, etc...)

I love this = consumers of this media can also become producers! That's a beautiful thing & an endless discussion right there...

Twitter has become faster than any other news medium! This is changing the way news sources deal with stuff.
[*Maybe me following Twitter so closely gets me off the hook for not watching the news or reading the newspaper?]
& Wow! China shutting down access to Twitter? r u serious?

*** "As recently as last decade most of the media that was available for public consumption was produced by professionals. Those days are over never to return."

Mature use of this social media = "convening not controlling."

**So, I really wanna hear some feedback from you on this talk. I'm jazzed about it. It's got my head spinning in all directions...
WHAT DO YOU THINK?