Remember chat rooms?

I keep wondering where social media is going.  I remember my first experience with social media.  It was 1997 we bought a computer and set it up at the kitchen table.  We started participating in the online discussion by going into online “cafe’s” or chat rooms. It was wild.  No matter what your interest, you could find people with that same interest in a chat room.  I couldn’t believe that people were chatting online by typing.  You could chat any time you liked, all day, any day.  Once you turned on your computer, you could get instant interaction.  For two weeks I was addicted. 

The chat room phase wore off on me as quickly as it started because the discussion was so fragmented and it served no real purpose for me. There was no connection with these people.  It was like having the sensation of feeling alone in a room full of people. 

Then came instant messaging.  This was fun until you realized that every time you signed on you were obligated to respond to greeting messages from every person who sent you a message.  Then six hours would go by on a Saturday when you realize you haven’t eaten or showered yet. 

The funniest moment for me is when we got a video camera to video conference with our family in another state.   For the first couple of days we would try it out with random people in video chat rooms.  I would get up, get all prettied up to go on the computer and figure this out.  Until one day when an unwelcome guest joined our chat room who was alone, quite naked and having a grand old time all by himself.  Did you ever notice the people who probably should NOT be naked are those who are most proud to be? That put an abrupt end to that video chat experience.

The instant messenger phase has passed. I don’t even know if anyone still uses AOL.  I haven’t heard or thought about the idea of a “chat room” in years.  I wonder if anyone goes in them anymore.   

So now we are all blogging, tweeting, “friending” and this seems so normal.  In 10 years will we say – “I wonder if anyone even tweets anymore!  Remember blogging?” Inevitably some young ditzy person will come up to you and say, “What’s blogging?”

Why not ask?

I am inspired.  Let me tell you why:

As you know, my Social Media professor asked Zappos to attend a Skype (video conferencing) call with our class and they accepted.  We spoke with Thomas Knoll who made all of us Zappoholics.  When my professor made these arrangements, it seemed cool to me at the time, but not earth shattering.

Until she said, “See what can happen if you just ask?”  She never thought about why Zappos wouldn’t or shouldn’t respond to her request or why she wouldn’t or shouldn’t request it.

She further stated we should never fall into the “yeah, but…”  I was the moron that never heard of that statement and asked what the heck she was talking about.  “Yeah, but…” is the beginning of the conversation we have with ourselves and others when we are considering asking for something out of the ordinary.

It goes like this:

Alicia says to herself:  “I want to ask Bill Cosby to write the foreward to my book because he was such a huge inspiration to me in my pursuit of returning to college.”

Alicia responds:  “Yeah, but I will feel like a hopeless idiot asking him that.  Besides why would he take time and effort for a nobody like me?”

You get the idea.

Want to be inspired too?  Click on my professor’s link:  Why Not Ask and tab through her new blog.  It will get you excited.  She contacted the very companies that were presented in our social media textbook, Social Corp, but what’s more she contacted Joel Postman, the author too.  They all said YES to Skypeing in and meeting with her fall class.

So what I want to know is – what is YOUR burning question that you feel too intimidated to ask?