When the social media skeptic
becomes a social(media)ite

by Matt | March 11th, 2010

Now this is a story all about how my social life got flipped, turned upside down.*

I don’t even know where or how it began, but over the past year social media outlets have profoundly impacted my days and nights. I have all the characteristics of a human being*, but now these digitally pixelated outlets have fused their ways into how I think and even act at times.

Sounds kind of Matrix-like, right? Well, unfortunately, no one can be told what social media is. You have to see it for yourself.*

At Berklee College of Music (the only college I can think of where business cards were more important than textbooks), a daily pill was shoved down our throats about how to be successful in the music industry. It came down to one simple word. Networking. If we only knew what was to come in the next few years….

Enter: Twitter and Co.

It’s almost sad to admit how much this tool has helped change my social and professional life. I don’t have the same impact as Conan O’Brien, but I’ve spent enough time using Twitter to get it. Most people sign up for an account and then scratch their heads saying, “What now??”

Well, imagine the ability to get in contact with some of the most famous and successful people in the world (or just in your world) with the simple click of a “follow” button. Sounds ridiculous, right? It’s not. I have been in contact with musicians I adore, CEOs of companies I rave about, developers of software applications that I use on a daily basis. The steps necessary to do this before would have been outrageous!

Twitter has also allowed me to meet people I might have passed by on the street, train, or in a bar or restaurant somewhere, but would have never approached. Now some of them are great friends who have shown (and continue to show) me new things about music, my city, and life in general.

It’s almost as if people walk around the streets shouting out snippets of thoughts, suggestions of material to read, music to listen to, etc. That’s what is great about Twitter. And the even better part is that I get to choose which crazy, street-roaming psychopaths I want to listen to. They are providing content catered to/for me because they have similar, like minds and I can tell this because of the (pleasant Beatles-esque) noise they produce.

***Thanks to the Fresh Prince, Patrick Bateman, and Morpheus for the quotes.
See you on Twitter? Maybe we’ll grab a drink twitter.com/dirkler