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Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt, who is known for being a little bit reluctant to use new technology, has gone on the record saying social media might be a “fad”.
Shadbolt was at a Venture Southland joint committee meeting, and was the only one to vote against spending $50,000 on a social media strategy and website development.
Social media might just be a fad “like the hula hoop”, he said.
“I hated the idea of Facebook but my partner said I had to or I wouldn’t have any friends. She put me on Facebook and within 24 hours I had 5000 friends, and I didn’t know who any of them were,” he said.
He had no idea what these people were like, and for all he knew they could be dangerous people, he said.
Southland District Mayor Frana Cardno said he could delete friends, but Shadbolt said there was a 5000 friend limit, and when people were deleted it made room for more to get on board.
When asked if he used Skype to talk to his family or sent text messages on his phone, Shadbolt said he did not use Skype, had had his phone for years and did not know how to use it properly, and could not text as his fingers were too big.
Shadbolt said he knew it had been a long time since the invention of the printing press, and technology was moving even faster now.
“Maybe there is something else just around the corner. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts before the negative impact,” he said.
“It could end up being more trouble than it is worth at the end of the day.”
Robin Campbell, Venture’s acting chief executive, said while technology would change what happened next would be an evolution of what we had now, not a replacement.
Sarah Hannan made a presentation to the committee outlining her research and a proposed online strategy for Venture Southland.
The key was not waiting for people to come to the Venture website, but to go out to them via social media, online advertising, and interactive sites, she said.
– © Fairfax NZ News
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What a backward man. No wonder Southlands so far behind.
To be fair Herb # 25 it wasn’t Tim Shadbolt who complained to the broadcasting standards authority, it was Gary McCormick.
Tim’s got plenty of common sense and it’s paid off for Invercargill. Good on him. He’s not entirely wrong. social media’s got it’s place but there’s as much twaddle there as everywhere – and look at how many compete to have more connections on LinkedIn than anyone else – the grown-ups version of Facebook? And they’re stuck with them no matter what.
Tim might be on to a #winning strategy for the deep south. Remove all cell phone towers, restrict broadband access, and advertise as truly the place where you can get away from it all… shivering in an old prospectors hut in the middle of summer.
I am so sick of all this social net work crap that I agree with Mr Shadbolt. I am also really really sick of reality TV. Can someone please tell me who is really interested in watching some aussie kids cook? bad enough watching the adults .
Totally agree with Tim. It is a fad and over time social media will morph into a more mature sensible online collaboration space. Not focussed on people wanting to boost their egos by telling the world who they are, what they had for breakfast and showing photos of their weekend BBQ.
Once again Tim grabs the attention. The old master never misses a beat. Shows how far you can get on bullshit and jelly beans. He understands a lot more about communication than most.
Social media has been around for several decades in one form or another so if it is a fad it’s a pretty persistent fad!
The BBSs and Listservs of old were social media too even though they predated buzzwords like “social media”, “read write web”, “web 2.0″ and the like by decades.
Just like Facebook or Twitter they were online services allowing people to connect and share content – the defining characteristics of social media.
That we might use technology to better communicate with each other isn’t a fad. But the buzzwords we use to describe it often are.
@Jules #26 haha G+ is still just a niche hangout where the geeks can feel righteous
Good for him. It takes guts to stand alone on an issue. Why should Southlanders who don’t have computers or who don’t use Facebook be forced to spend cash on such? I’m with Tim. It’s not local or even central govts role to be chucking cash around willy nilly.
Kodiac #24 4:17pm
Absolutely right on the Button Mr Shadbolt once the Social Media addicts realise exactly what is happening with their disclosures it will be too late.
I don’t get it – slag off social media users on an online forum?
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