What an amazing week we just had as the coworking sponsors of Social Media Week LA down in Santa Monica. I'll admit I was a bit nervous to be around so many people who are ultra savvy about social media, but even though I’m in my 40 somethings I think I do alright handling my FB, Twitter and Instagram, I mean, I still have a lot to learn, but who doesn’t. That being said, here is a little bit of what I did learn and observed over the course of last week.
We live in a time of creators. We live in the modern-day renaissance. Through social media, each and every one of us creates something every day, whether it be a tweet, a post, a pic, a video, unless you are re-posting something, you are a creator and if you are re-posting, you are appreciating someone else’s creation that is now hanging in a modern mini digital museum.
And, Ok, I know that tweeting a pic of your food or of a puppy wearing a Darth Vader costume doesn’t make you a Michelangelo, but in these fast paced, socially driven times of expression, it does not negate that you are a creator and with the touch of a screen you can get accolades from millions. Bet Michelangelo wouldn’t have minded that.
And just like many great artists, our social media stars are hot one literal minute, and cold the next. A new art with its own language, new words spoken into existence overnight. And millions of us trying to capture one thing… a pure, native, honest, viral moment. To be, Caravaggio, Donatello, Botticelli for a few fleeting hours until the next rising star knocks us from the top of the page and posts disappear from our hands as the never-ending feed scrolls past our fingers.
"Pizza Rat" is not the "Mona Lisa" (#121 of things I never thought I'd hear myself say) But it doesn't have to be.
We do live in a time of creators. We do live in the modern-day renaissance. Social media is the medium and we are it's Da Vinci.