Those of you who work at newspapers, TV & radio stations or networks, magazine or book publishers, advertising or public relations, telephone companies — or any of a myriad number of threatened industries being “made more efficient” (i.e., disrupted) by the Internet — may not be fully grasping how a culture of participation, social media offerings and a techno-savvy world is embracing new technologies and forcibly choosing something different or simply no longer paying attention to what you do.
Major disruptive changes happen so slowly that most of us don’t react quickly enough or are uncertain and thus take little or no action.
My grandfather was employed with the Great Northern Railroad beginning in the early 1900′s and lived and worked through the heyday of the railroad. He found himself beyond delighted to have a stable, good job (especially through the Depression) that lasted without interruption for 44 years.
Grandpa also experienced first-hand the massive changes in the last century which caused him to slowly become concerned that “his railroad” was being disrupted by the automobile, the trucking industry and the Interstate highway system and later on by the airplane. If you would’ve told him in 1930 that the railroad wouldn’t be the be-all, end-all transportation system in America today he would’ve laughed at you. I suspect he was tickled to have retired and had his pension before mergers and consolidations happened in the railroad system during the ’60′s and 70′s.
Steve’s Social Stuff