Whereupon one ponders the whole social media palavar and throws in a spot of feminism for good measure...

We are gathered here today. Well actually I'm not sure if we're gathered at all. That's the funny thing about social media. We're so 'empowered' to express ourselves 'online', with the cornucopia of technologies, platforms, software, gadgets, PDAs, websites.....whosywhatsits, thingummybobs, whatsitsfaces, it does become a blur but I digress. 

Basically, this stuff is so heralded and we're so encouraged to go for it, you're still left wondering, is anyone home? Who's reading this? Is it having an impact? And I hate to go all economics on your proverbial, but there's another crucial question. Who gets access? Who gets coverage? Can everyone afford it? And how is this decided?



In the developing world, just getting a computer with a reliable internet connection can be a borderline miracle. Other countries heavily restrict access. Then there's the literacy required to interact with all this. Not just to read and write (which though is a biggie), but to understand, contextualise and filter what we find online - one more time, just because a website declares Elvis is alive and well and selling vacuum cleaner parts in some small American town, doesn't necessarily make it true. And again, that all seems to go back to economics as to who gets the education to suss all this out, what forms of media get the resources to get the attention, to get the followers, and so it goes.

But don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty amazing what we have now. Being somewhat of an old girl - without giving too much away, let's just say I still have flashbacks to hair gel, puffball skirts and Ant Music - I've been energised by such a massive transition. I'm at a generation that has Grandparents who got 'the telephone' installed for the very first time ever. Back when I was a kid, all we had really was post, landline phones, analog radio, linear TV (gasp, sometimes it was even only black and white) and newspapers made of you know, paper (yes it was tough). Go back even further to the days of our Jane Austen novels (no back there, this is not a first-hand report!) and all they had was a daily exchange of hand-delivered letters.

Now I can immediately text family and friends around the world, show my pal on Skype a new frock I've bought (look, I never said I was deep), watch YouTube on my smartphone, email snaps of what I Did On My Hols and of course follow the news and the big one - agitate, educate, organise on all this converging media, so that all can make the most of what this epochal era offers us.

But social media also begs a lot of questions, why do we engage with it so much? Because of the great digital industrial complex, to be lemmings for more advertising space, to change the world, to reach out, connect...

And what does it do to us? For us? Are we changing the way we communicate? Or is the human need to connect rather enduring really and when it's all boiled down, not a lot about relationships, power and communications has changed a lot - we've just got ourselves some new toys to do this with. And that's pretty much what I intend to ruminate over in these pages.

Now to finish this inaugural post, thought I'd finish with a visual. Another one of my hobby-horses (trust me, there's loads) is the F word - Feminism! Something I embrace with joy and pride. Just recently it was International Women's Day, which brought to my attention a forum called Equals? - a partnership of charities and arts and entertainment organisations - to celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day. The following video talks about young Mums and whether women and men really are equal. Enjoy, think, converse.