The New Media Gap Is Really a Wall of Defense

It’s always been the Generation Gap. Young lion needs to fight old lion and leave the pride to find a life. Young has his faith in himself and his idealism. Old lion has his practical wisdom. There was no bridge to cross that cavern.

Yesterday I walked up to a new chasm that has no bridge across it — the New Media Gap.

The New Media Gap Isn’t a Gap at All

The New Media Gap is disconcerting because it’s not naturally occurring. It crosses generations, educational backgrounds, and economic levels. It’s heart is totally experiential. The communication from one side to the other cannot be fixed by a simple bridge because the New Media Gap is, in fact, not a gap, but a wall.

Any blogger has met the New Media Gap (NMG) in trying to explain just what a blog is. I suppose I always was working on a hidden assumption that the problem was a lack of information. Yesterday, however, two things happened.

• I met with my neurologist and in conversation we discussed blogging and the Internet. I quickly came to the conclusion that, I didn’t have time to explain what it was about. As I left this intelligent, soft-spoken man said, “Beware of the Internet Pirates.” All I could say was, “I’m past that. They need to beware of me now.” It didn’t say nearly what I wanted it to, but how do you explain when the filtered view is out of whack?
• Later that night I read piece in print about blogging. It was well written and thoroughy researched. I’ll paraphrase here a passage within it that still haunts me,. Corporations are conservative, they don’t like to upset customers, and to think that something like blogging might have an impact is naive. The article went on to quote a corporate exec as saying something to the effect of why would I want many comments on my website saying my product stinks? and why would I want to deal with them? How do I, as a customer and a product developer, accept those statements as anything but arrogant?

I sit this morning in amazement. I know the first man to be a thorough and deep thinker and yet on this particular topic, he speaks as the ancients spoke of the constellations.

I think of the corporate exec in the second example, and I wonder would people be writing that his product stinks if it didn’t? Shouldn’t he want to know if it does? Can he hear himself use the words why would I want — to deal — with them? He uses the words of distaste and distance.

The corporate exec is right he shouldn’t be blogging. If his product does stink, he won’t have customers much longer either.

Concern on the one hand, conceit on the other.

Neither man could listen.

Walls are great insulators. They are like fences, however. They keep things in and protect them, but fences and walls also are indiscriminate about what the things that they keep out.

–ME “Liz” Strauss