How Does Social Media Compare To A Clothesline?
Remember the Clothesline?? If that was too long ago for the younger generation – you might ask your Grandparents or Great Grandparents. For parts of our world the clothesline still exists. However in this the modern world with the entrance of technology “the clothesline” per say has come inside. Allow me to explain. The era of the clothesline was a day when if company came to your house, they came for not a short visit as it took a long time to get there. They traveled by stage coach or by horse and buggy so when they arrived they usually came for two or three weeks. The clothesline told the story!!! The extra sheets and pillow cases and the visitors’ clothes were all washed and hung out to dry on the clothesline. The neighbors traveling into town or where ever passing by would all notice the clothes line had more than it’s usual load. The clothesline was a rope strung from the house to a tree. It spoke “Company is a comin”!! or “Company is here!! Folks would sit on the front porch and tell stories of what had happened in their lives since their last visit.
Enter Social Media!! Life changed!! What happened???
A new era was born — the era of technology!! The clothesline came down and the people on the front porch went inside. Chatting on the front porch outside was replaced with Television on the inside. The new dryers would take care of the wet sheets and towels. The visitors would fly in from across the country on an Airplane and stay for a weekend rather than a long journey in the horse and buggy. And then the computer led way to an era of Mass communication and E-Mail was born – short instant memos replacing long handwritten letters from loved one delivered by “the Pony Express” and later the US. Mail. In today’s world of Social Media, Skype is here now and you could see your loved ones even replacing the telephone and telegraph. Then the entrance of “Smart Phone”‘s , couldn’t cook you dinner but could tell you were the nearest Pizza takeout is. Then the Clothesline communication was replaced by Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and thus now the new Social Media had arrived!! The ‘passer-byers’ were now not wandering into town but were spread all over the planet, instantly I might add. In seconds you could communicate with folks on the other side of this planet!! The front porch became the entire world at our fingertips. How life had changed from not that long ago to this current writing and still things are changing at the blink of an eye. Wondering when you are older and your youngsters are asking — what was it like — in the days of the Clothesline or maybe they will be asking — what was it like in the days of Social Media – for who know what our planet’s secrets will hold in the next twenty years?? Thought provoking , isn’t it??
