The Day Social Media Died

Posted: 08/07/09 by Chris Parandian

Thursday morning started out like every other weekday morning.  Big cup of coffee, BlackBerry blinking, and reading the latest from my favorite tech blogs.  However, something wasn't quite right.  Something was missing --- my communities on Facebook and Twitter!  

As many social media enthusiasts know, Facebook and Twitter were hit  with denial of service attacks yesterday.  In Twitter's case, the website was down and millions of people were unable to communicate.  Some folks might be scratching their heads thinking this is irrelevant.  However, Twitter is now THE network.  Like millions of others, I rely on an awesome community of users to stay plugged into mobile, marketing, technology, and policy.  

Two years ago many would question the relevance of using the mobile internet to "tweet."  In fact, many in this industry laughed at me when I was twittering over two years ago.  I knew then what now is evident to millions around the world: our mobile and online spaces are intertwined.

Social networking is a primary driver for the mobile internet.  We want to know where our friends are and what's on their minds at all times.  The mobile platform provides this information and allows us to be "in the know."  Comscore's Mark Donovan, in a recent study earlier this year hammered that point home stating "over the course of the past year, we have seen use of mobile Internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people's lives" and that "social networking and blogging have emerged as very popular daily uses of the mobile web."

Mashable writer Josh Steinberg recently pondered - "are Twitter and other social networks destined to niche status or are they so embedded in our lives that they are now an indespensible part of society?"  The answer is obvious and yesterday proved it.