Somewhere along the way I heard this observation:

People are shaped by the friendships they keep, books they read, television programs they watch, and audiotapes they listen to.  

Even though it’s a bit dated (what are audiotapes?), the core message remains the same.  Each of us are influenced by the connections we have with the rest of the world.

A few news items caught my attention this week that underscores this point. First, NPR ran a story on the declining importance of newspaper endorsements in the presidential election. Makes sense when you consider how the internet has created new avenues of news gathering and opinion sharing. That’s why the candidates are investing greatly into communicating their messages directly to the voters and grassroots volunteers. [See techpresident.com for more.]

The second news item was the New York Philharmonic’s performance in North Korea. Part of the agreement was that the performance had to be broadcast live and uninterrupted on the government radio network. That had to be something to go from isolation to hearing Gershwin’s American in Paris. To put it in context, take a moment to view a satellite photo of North Korea at night.

For those who understand the power of connections, digital media offers great opportunity. Let’s start by updating the original quote:

People are shaped by the Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections they accept, websites they frequent, YouTube channels they watch, and Podcasts and RSS feeds they subscribe to.

And, perhaps even more important, people are being defined by the contributions they make to the internet. My colleague, Sarah Robbins, spoke about this concept on Friday at our Social Media Mania event at IUPUI. Companies and organizations are no longer satisfied tracking how many people visit their website and open their emails. They are growing more interested in seeing who joins their social network groups, responds to blog postings, posts YouTube content, and engages with them in other ways.

With that in mind, what connections are important to you? What connections define people today?

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm and is filed under MediaSauce, social networks, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.