Jeff Pulver: “Social Media Experts” Should Get A New Job
Complete video at: fora.tv Blogger and Vonage co-founder Jeff Pulver argues that social media will soon “go away.” “Those of you who call yourselves a social media guru or expert, you should find a new job,” he says. Pulver believes we are witnessing the evolution of communication and that online interaction will soon become more personal. —– DLD is an inspiring community for the 21st century which features digital innovation, science and culture and brings together thought leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and investors from Europe, the Middle-East, the Americas and Asia. This session on the real time web features Raj Narayan (Tinker), Loic Le Meur (Seesmic), and Baratunde Thurston (The Onion). Moderated by Jeff Pulver (Pulver.com). – DLD Jeff Pulver has been called “a habitual entrepreneur who likes to start Internet communications companies.” He is known globally as someone who helped popularize the use of Voice over IP (voip) and as the co-founder of Vonage. In 2009 he created the global #140 Characters Conferences, which explores the emerging real-time Internet. On February 12, 2004, Mr. Pulver’s petition for clarification declaring Free World Dialup as an unregulated information service was granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This landmark decision by the FCC was the first decision it made on IP communications.
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25 comments
Luinreg on February 26, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Some very insightful advice for an incoming crash of unemployment for those relying just on socializing. There will still be a need but nowhere near because of the many ways people can communicate with each other.
ckj377 on February 27, 2010 at 12:12 am
Bravo; well said
endsequence on February 27, 2010 at 2:00 am
He sounds like someone who doesn’t know much about the socio-economic benefits, including raw political power that social media (and how open and fast it is) benefits societies. He seems to talk about this in a PURELY social setting — not one for instance where people in a country like Iran can find ways to reach the world in spite of government restrictions. It’d be a sad day when his idea of social networks are realized, tyranny depends on lack of connectedness in the decision cycle.
endsequence on February 27, 2010 at 2:01 am
I disagree
endsequence on February 27, 2010 at 2:02 am
He trivializes it in an almost comically simple manner — this issue is not that simple.
endsequence on February 27, 2010 at 2:04 am
In other words, real-time is far better than slower alternatives always. Calling for a complete deconstruction of network theory in his light is almost nihilistic.
Saktoth on February 27, 2010 at 4:39 am
What is he blathering about? Social media will go away because it will take over everything and just be the human experience so get out of social media because soon EVERYTHING will be social media?
WHAT?
oiuoiu988 on February 27, 2010 at 5:06 am
wow, i didnt think conjoined twin myslexia was a real thing.
Hopeful71 on February 27, 2010 at 6:34 am
Adults will grow tired of the “fad” of social media but it will integrate in the ways it is actually pragmatically useful.
Teenagers, OTOH, need ways of testing & reassuring themselves they are OK and social media is like crack to that need. Certainly their style of social media will evolve to other newer, “hipper” forms, but this is the new drug for kids.
Dinostra on February 27, 2010 at 8:15 am
This is true in a way! But the average “joe” isn’t using social media for that/those purposes, i’m fairly certain that facebook isn’t there to give an extra “freedom” to individuals in somewhat “fascist” (-ish) places of the world, or to share political views of any kind. Ask some random facebook users why they have an account and you’ll see! The same goes for all too many forums, w/ no focus on real issues. Too many people seem to stick to pointless forums BECAUSE of just that, a runaway fromit
Dinostra on February 27, 2010 at 8:17 am
What ever happened to a cup of coffee with a friend?
Dinostra on February 27, 2010 at 8:19 am
well put! not sure i agree though, but ofc there is always a balance
MarmaladeINFP on February 27, 2010 at 11:10 am
Social media has been constantly changing and will continue to constantly change. It’s likely that social media as we no know it won’t exist in the future, but that isn’t the same thing as saying it’s going away. Anyone proclaiming the death of social media is utterly clueless. Media is going to become increasingly social. I will give this guy credit for pointing out that media will become more personal, but personal isn’t always in opposition to social.
Bobbiethejean on February 27, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I could be totally, batshit, off the fucking map wrong about this, but it sounds to me like he’s just blathering nonsense to sound edgy and climactic.
ndyt on February 27, 2010 at 3:42 pm
No, this is only the beginning and people are NOT going to figure out how it works and build a database. Most people cant even code HTML
thecamlayton on February 27, 2010 at 6:53 pm
after the nostalgia of friending all those people from high school I decided to unfriend them.I only kept people I actually deal with in real life and a few people from HS I wanted to keep in touch with.I decided if one wanted to friend me, I wouldn’t say no(that might change). it’s better this way. Meaningless friending seems pointless.I think my account should be more immediate and personal.I don’t know these people from HS now.I don’t think I should give access and pretend we’re friends.
GOPsithlord on February 27, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Mr. Pulver has said aloud what no doubt many have felt very recently. The public broadcast of trivial information has left us awash in unnecessary chaff of human experience that proves all too mundane occassionally punctuated by some kind of interest. Judging by the comments here, I see people have tried in their own way to curtail the excess and I think this is a furthering of the evolution abouth which he spoke.
messianicrogue on February 28, 2010 at 2:50 am
The FAD of social media will inevitably evolve, the way it is being used today will look foolish in the very near future.
The sad part of social media is that companies and ‘marketing guru’s’ have descended on it for quick get rich style agenda driven messages.
The producer / consumer paradigm is not directly applicable to this form of communication. It is all just noise to get in the way of real social interaction and real people rapidly decipher BS from communication.
StephenKuma on February 28, 2010 at 7:23 pm
i wish facebook would just get out of our lives and shut up
EvanChaim on February 28, 2010 at 7:57 pm
this is what Jonah Hill will look like in 10 years….
seemoretube on March 1, 2010 at 9:59 pm
This guy’s life is just a fad.
eirefrance on March 3, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I agree. He might even be right, but I suspect his motives are just what you said.
tmajestic on March 3, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Am I the only one who thinks that everything he said proved the exact opposite of his point? If Social Media evolves then it IS here to stay, it will just get better. It either grows or it dies, and it isn’t dying. Evolution is growth. Evolution IS staying.
charlesfrith on March 31, 2010 at 8:10 am
I think his point is any focus on the tools distances the manifestation of the tools. An increasing sense of humanity. Why cling onto Detroit when it’s mobility that people are talking about?
aw18678 on May 15, 2010 at 8:43 pm
i think its true that the evolution of human experience is driven and underpinned by new technologies; though what can be more engaging than the convergence of social media, alternative news channels and a receptive populace in these times;