A friend of mine, who works primarily in old media, often debates with me about the value of old media. I always reply, sure there will always be people that want to ride a horse or listen to a record. I happen to own a Victrola and listen to it when old media nostalgia strikes me. I’m a pretty big fan of Bix Beiderbecke and have several 78 rpm records featuring his music. The problem is that we are on an unstoppable ride called Convenience. Convenience slows down for no one.
Each minute, day, month, year, whatever, the world gets smaller and busier. There’s no use complaining about it. People have always had a problem with it. Take a minute to read Walden by Thoreau, published in 1854, if you don’t believe me. Virgil, a Roman poet, wrote about farmers and shepherds and wonderful it was to work the land. It was very popular in its day because it reminded people of a simpler time before things had gotten so bad. We’ve always longed for an earlier, simpler time that has never existed.
We are witnessing the last gasps of old media, and one day new media will be old media, and I will write a blog post about the quaint old internet and how everything has become so complicated and harrumph through my long grey beard at whatever anyone younger than 82 is doing. So, let’s live in the present moment, and accept all the hustle and bustle that is the now.
If you provide a service in exchange for money, and you use that money as the primary way of feeding yourself, why are you not on the internet? And if you are on the internet, why are you doing something to massage that internet and bring more money into your door? SEO, SEM, Social Media, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, whatever, get on board. Just showing up to the party does not guarantee that you will become the belle of the ball.
Last year the good people at Intel created this awesome infographic showing what happens in an Internet minute. If you really want to be amazed, look at the part about future growth. The Internet is about convenience, and the ride ain’t stopping.
