This could not be more true, IMHO: " ...as the US increasingly becomes a nation of the self-employed and
the self-promoting, as we build our professional careers and
reputations on networks likeTwitter and Linked-In, so the business of
Americans will become the business of self-promotion and self-branding.
Like it or not, the wrenching restructuring is going to effect everyone. For all of us -- the unemployed and those fortunate enough to still have jobs -- it's time to get that Twitter account, time to sign up to Linked-In, time to aggressively hunt for online friends and followers. We are all Scoble now. The world, for better or worse, has been Scobleized."
--Andrew Keen, The Great Seduction, We are all Scoble now
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I really disagree with this, Susan. To a degree, we need to use online tools, but the use of the tools are merely to extend our personal networks and ease communication with them. It's not about growing groups of thousands of "followers" a la Scoble but about better tending one's own garden of carefully chosen high-quality connections.
Although there will be some, like the guy I dissed on Twitter for his incredibly rude DM, who will think the more who are following them, the better. But they--and those following them, will learn the uselessness of being connected to parasites.
Besides, if people are really working, and having lives, they will have just so much bandwidth--the bandwith necessary--for social networking. And no more. Most of the world are not like us early adapters, thank god :-)
I tend to agree with Keen on this as well (for some professions more than others).
But as he noted "for better or for worse." Keen tends to have a negative attitude towards these things. I don't. Granted there will be a period of snake oil salespeople online - but once the larger population gets more versed in living lives online - as a society we will be better for it - and better equipped to find the right people to tackle the right problem.