Social Networking Is as Old as Humanity

Is social media all it's cracked up to be?

Scott Berkun, a former manager at Microsoft who describes himself as an author, "kick ass" public speaker and consultant to Fortune 500 companies, says it's not. In a blog, Berkun attempts to bring people's expectations and terminology about social media back down to earth.For instance, you think social networking is something new? Nonsense, he says:

"We have always had social networks. Call them families, tribes, clubs, cliques or even towns, cities and nations. You could call throwing a party or telling stories by a fire 'social media tools'. If anything has happened recently it's not the birth of social networks, it's the popularity of digital tools for social networks, which is something different."

Berkun does a good job of putting things into perspective and helps us step back and take a look at the medium of online social networking as it evolves.