TEXT II

    If you think that there’s something oddly familiar about descriptions of social media, it may be that you recall some of the discussions in the 1990s about what the web would become. And many of its emerging manifestations are close to the idealistic imaginings from that time. A good way to think about social media is that all of this is actually just about being human beings. Sharing ideas, cooperating and collaborating to create art, thinking and commerce, vigorous debate and discourse, finding people who might be good friends, allies and lovers – it’s what our species has built several civilisations on. That’s why it is spreading so quickly, not because it’s great shiny, whizzy new technology, but because it lets us be ourselves – only more so. And it is in the “more so” that the power of this revolution lies. People can find information, inspiration, like-minded people, communities and collaborators faster than ever before. New ideas, services, business models and technologies emerge and evolve at dizzying speed in social media.

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