Now that social media with @social and #media hashtags is becoming the core of everyday communication around the Olympics and the presidential elections, it has evolved from being "2.0," yet it is still poorly understood. Social Media shares the challenge most media developments encounter once they enter the mainstream. In their acceptance, they are pushed into the established set of paradigms of how media is/was expected to function. Twitter is expected to work like picture postcards - only shorter and faster. Only it escapes this nice idea and becomes a force in its own rights - creating a parallel communication universe that cannot be controlled as expected.

Social media – “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques” (Wikipedia reviewed Feb 2011) ” are relatively inexpensive and accessible to enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, compared to industrial media, which generally require significant resources to publish information.” (ibid) As with many developments in multimedia and digital publishing, social media are considered a recent development, overcoming the limitations of “traditional” publishing. The potential of Facebook are rooted in the fact that it connects everyone with everyone, becoming the factotum of the city, knowing every story, every love affair and speculation. There is high demand by everyone: tutti mi chiedono, tutti mi vogliono, everyone asks for me, everyone wants me, and good compensation for social media services.  Ahimè, che furia! Ahimè, che folla! Ah, what frenzy! Ah, what a crowd!

What Zuckerberg can learn from an expert in social media in the 17th century is the integration of communication services with a brick-and-mortar presence in a shop. Definitely a good combination: a te fortuna non mancherà.  (and he has to learn to sing).

Ah, che bel vivere, che bel piacere – Ah, what a fine life, what a fine pleasure (lyrics)