Afterword: the FS club bloggers night on social media

Some more thoughts on social media which occurred after Chris Skinner’s Financial Services Club event last night - prompted by the inspirational qualities of Young's Bitter perhaps? If I am repeating myself apologies to those who attended but I always have a bit of a goldfish memory when speaking at these events:

1. Social media is not homogenous. It value is its fecundity in producing multiple forms of community, interests and meanings of ‘social’.

2. Social capital can transform into both political and economic capital/power/value.

3. It is hard to rationalize social progress into linear trends – trial and error, James’ creative adapters and the like mean that graphs, etc are de facto descriptions not a priori explanations.

4. Why wouldn’t banks value the ability of new forms of social media and interaction to create social capital alongside political and economic capital despite the obvious challenges of the transparency and equality required to participate in these new social spheres as they emerge and evolve.

5. Constantly feeling the pressure to be original and individual is hard work and stressful. Sometimes conformity and anonymity seem a comforting alternative. I have colleagues in who have enjoyed the freedom of the Berlin lifestyle who are now (jokingly perhaps) longing to retire to the prejudice and class hierarchy of Munich!

6. Social media is creating contexts where the ‘money’ itself is being transformed from economic to other forms of (cultural/political/social) value.

7. So-called social media (typified by "internet 2.0" for want of a collective term) will solidify into institutions which will be critiqued and overthrown just like any other forcing them to adapt and change to new social realities themselves – perhaps more quickly than their investors / creators think!