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10 years after the social revolution…

Fad? We now can say it was not! What did this revolution bring to our life? How did we change? How different are we today?

Things got settled now and social has blended into our lives. There is no such thing as social anymore, there are just habits.

After the rail revolution, we just changed our way of traveling and it got integrated; we stopped talking about trains as something special.

As I was mentioning 10 years ago, social will blend into the list of functionalities websites will require. It was the case for Search functionalities years ago, it is definitely now the case for social functionalities. User-generated content is just part of who we are. We are used to reading reviews, articles created by users, look at people’s pictures, click on share buttons, log in with our Facebook. We are just used to it, without asking more.

10 years ago we were talking about creators, curators, and consumers. Where the vast majority of people were consumers, the trend has changed. The number of creators has indeed increased but not to the largest extent. I believe that the number of curators is the segment that increased the most. While people used to be consumers, they are now consumers and curators. They curate all the time and they share. This segment has grown proportionally much more than the other segments.

Who are we? Human social…but now we are truly digital social. People are addicted, they cannot imagine living without social. They spent hours on Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and Pinterest…and…

Would you imagine not having trains or planes today? I would not imagine not having social. My friends from there are just here with me. We read the same articles, we talk about our kids, we keep each other informed. I sometimes have more contacts with my friends online, who I have not seen for years, than others who are close by. It is a revolution and it is how our interactions are now formed.

Homesickness and distance are not perceived the same way because, even when people are away, they are close. I can see my kid taking skype as often as he wants to talk to his grandparents. My family is informed on everything we do on Facebook, they see pictures of my kid growing and we have sometimes the feeling that they are not that far after all.

When I research about a school or about a program for my kid, I do not look for the corporate information; I look for what others have to say, I want to understand their experience. People are looking for others' opinions more often. We care more about others, and because others have tools to express themselves, it can reach more people.

Social has just become who we are. It changed our interactions, it changed our communication channels, it changed our habits, it changed our society. For 10 years, I have been looking at what would be the next big thing that will fascinate me as much as social did when it started. I am not a kid of the age of the rail or the plain, I am not a kid of the age of the internet, I am a kid of the age of social. I was old enough to understand and to see it growing and changing who we are. Being the witness of a revolution is always a privilege. I am looking forward to the next revolution...


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