The Magnetic Force of Social Media
The following words were part of a comment i added to a blog post by Steve Goldner, on The Magentic Force of Social Media. You can view the post at http://socialsteve.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/the-magnetic-force-of-social-media
“I bought my first computer in 2002, just before doing a multimedia master’s degree, when I left school in 1981 we didn’t have any or use of any. So why does social media draw me? Connections, collaborations, sharing, informing, helping and on and on.
Since 1982 I have been in social networking [only just released it was named so]. As an artist and performance artist all that was important was interaction, participation, collaborations, sharing, engaging and building relationships. What was a piece of art worth if I made it and people simply ‘liked’ it. Instead I went out of my way to get reaction and make the audience creative too where possible.
I was also very active in ‘mail art’ and when someone says isn’t it odd having friends on Facebook you don’t know and will never meet, my answer is I have less there [685] than I had on my mailing list when doing ‘mail art’. Some of these people are still close friends and we still haven’t met.
I also spent 15 years performing as a living sculpture barely moving on top of a plinth up to 8 hours a day again for interaction and participation. More importantly this taught me about audience analysis otherwise everyone would simply walk by if I hadn’t understood their needs in connection to my movement.”
Mark longbottom
Design58
