Think back... waaaaay back to say...2001. What did your life look like then - well before Social Media was a "thing", a buzz word? Were you left in the dark all alone to fend for yourself? Were you fumbling around with AOL and dialup? Can you still hear that awful connection sound? How did ANYONE get anything done?! How did I live with a ginormous HP Desktop PC with 3gb worth of internal hard drive space?? How did the world function??
When I worked in NYC at a talent agency years later, one of the older assistants told these epic stories of how they used to throw contract parties, and I used to sit and just listen like a little kid during a history lesson:
And this was happening in the 1990s! She would tell me this story, as I pushed a billion buttons on a new copy machine to scan, copy 6 copies, and email to the necessary buyers all at once, and look at me like I was from another planet. When we figured out how to send contract rider files directly from our computer to the copy room down the hall without having to get up AND having them come out perfectly separated and stapled, it blew her freaking mind.
Think of job searching... you actually had to PRINT out your resume and cover letter and use an ENVELOPE to mail it in! Does anyone even know how much stamps are today? I sure don't. And how could one do a job search without things like Twitter and the twitter chats such as #jobhuntchat?? How did you get advice? By calling people on the TELEPHONE?! The horror! How did you do your research? Did you use the library and that gigantic card catalog? Jeeeeeez that seems like so. much. work. Where did you apply to jobs when things like Craigslist, LinkedIn, and Monster didn't exist? Is THAT what newspapers were for? How cute.
Technology has come a LONG way, even in the past 6 years and it sure as hell has made our lives easier. But at the same time - do we rely too much on it? We've forgotten about the basics like hard copies, phones, and libraries. They're useful for a reason. I recently bought a new car and had no idea where to go to start the search and my mom hands me a newspaper. I looked at her blankly and said, "What do you expect me to do with this?" No idea that car companies put their weekly ads in there still.
And not to mention, networking happens off line more often than not as well. So yes, USE social media to get what you need, but don't forget the basics. Face to Face interaction is the best, sometimes a printed resume MAILED to a company is what lands you an interview, and newspapers still have valuable information for local communities. Unplug occasionally.
When I worked in NYC at a talent agency years later, one of the older assistants told these epic stories of how they used to throw contract parties, and I used to sit and just listen like a little kid during a history lesson:
Late nights after the agents would go home, the assistants would order in pizza and beer and spend all night filing the contracts that were in triplicate into various color coded piles. It would take hours, and their hands would be full of ink from the flimsy paper.
And this was happening in the 1990s! She would tell me this story, as I pushed a billion buttons on a new copy machine to scan, copy 6 copies, and email to the necessary buyers all at once, and look at me like I was from another planet. When we figured out how to send contract rider files directly from our computer to the copy room down the hall without having to get up AND having them come out perfectly separated and stapled, it blew her freaking mind.
Think of job searching... you actually had to PRINT out your resume and cover letter and use an ENVELOPE to mail it in! Does anyone even know how much stamps are today? I sure don't. And how could one do a job search without things like Twitter and the twitter chats such as #jobhuntchat?? How did you get advice? By calling people on the TELEPHONE?! The horror! How did you do your research? Did you use the library and that gigantic card catalog? Jeeeeeez that seems like so. much. work. Where did you apply to jobs when things like Craigslist, LinkedIn, and Monster didn't exist? Is THAT what newspapers were for? How cute.
Technology has come a LONG way, even in the past 6 years and it sure as hell has made our lives easier. But at the same time - do we rely too much on it? We've forgotten about the basics like hard copies, phones, and libraries. They're useful for a reason. I recently bought a new car and had no idea where to go to start the search and my mom hands me a newspaper. I looked at her blankly and said, "What do you expect me to do with this?" No idea that car companies put their weekly ads in there still.
And not to mention, networking happens off line more often than not as well. So yes, USE social media to get what you need, but don't forget the basics. Face to Face interaction is the best, sometimes a printed resume MAILED to a company is what lands you an interview, and newspapers still have valuable information for local communities. Unplug occasionally.