Dead-Eight: My Life to Broadcast

I've always been a late comer to new social media. From MSN, through Bebo, right up to Twitter, I've never been at the fore front of the happenings on the www dots. I can remember an old mate of mine Lee Richardson, helping me set up my MSN account when I was just 14 years old, while explaning to my mum that I wasn't going to meet up with peado's or share my mobile number to anyone that asked for it online. (I had a 3310 in case you were wondering)

Setting up a Bebo account followed shortly after that at the age of 15. I, like many other kids at the time, were only setting one up because my other mates had one. I had never even heard of the term social network until Facebook became global in later years. Bebo however, was the first social networking site that I experienced, and with it, experiencing picture uploading and sharing. In the world of social media this is a trivial past time now, put being able to post and share pictures on the internet of you and your mates at the park, in town, down the pub or anywhere else was amazing, especially to a 15 year old kid like me. 

Bebo helped promote a band I was in at the time. Apart from Bebo being an obvious forum to talk to girls, it gave my school band a promotional platform. I could upload pictures of the band at practise, setting up shows, playing at shows and the inevitable under age drinking shenanigans that went on after. This meant that we could create an audience outside of my little seaside town in Devon, and branch out further a field to engage a wider audience for what we were doing. I had, without realising it, experienced the power of social networking, on a very mild watered down scale. 

The training wheels finally came off on the 1st January 2009 when I got Facebook. I'd actually seen my sister on the sight a few months previous, ranting a raving about how good Facebook was. Compared to Bebo it was an alien network, the layout was very simple and so was the colour scheme, Bebo had so many customisable tools that you could land on any one of your friends pages and know exactly who's page it was. The real difference between Bebo and Facebook, for me on a personal level, was how international it was. Actors, Musicians, Writers, Broadcasters, Reality stars, and other worldly occupations, all gather together to express their opinions no matter how exciting, or mind numbingly dull. (The latter is usually the case... and not just for celebs, some of my status updates have been a desperate attempt at creating excitement too). 

Another difference that struck me about Facebook was the very limited customizing tools for a profile. Like I mentioned earlier Bebo had a vast amount of themes and colours to create an individual looking profile. Facebook eliminates this altogether, and places the individuality upon the user to create this using their own pictures, statuses and stories, relying upon mostly creative literature, rather than design.

None of this information is new to anyone, but everyone has their own individual experiences with social networks from varying stages and eras in technology. I'd like to think that everyone will experience a light bulb moment in their life, when you witness the power of social media in its true form. On Wednesday 4th April 2012, I had my Light Bulb moment.

During the last day of the Student Radio Conference, I was sat in one of the final seminars of the day, voting for the next SRA Conference comity. I can't remember the name of the candidate on stage, but I can remember thinking 'what a  load of old shite'. In simple terms the guy was running for Head of Events... (I think) and all he kept going on about was how he had connections with Tim Westwood and Rizzle Kicks and a bunch of people who I couldn't care less about. He was explaining that he could get all these 'V.I.Ps' to the event next year to make it an awesome event.

In short he was name dropping all over the place, and they were not names that I felt related well to the Student Radio Conference at all. If I was to interact with any industry professionals at the SRA's I'd want them to be guys like me. Uni graduates who are working entry level jobs at stations, men and women higher up the Radio industry food chain who aren't in their perfect radio job, but who are climbing that ladder to where they want to be. And guys like Chris North and Mike Powell who are at the top of their game making massive decisions about the direction of the industry itself. If I wanted to see Rizzle Kicks I'd pay money to go see them at a show, and not say an awkward hello at a conference they know nothing about. (I have nothing against Rizzle Kicks by the way). 

So when It came to Q and A after this particular candidate had said their two minutes, I decided to ask the very question that everyone had on their minds, 'Could you get anyone to this conference that we actually care about?'. The room erupted in waves of laughter and shouts, I had people patting me on the back and shouting 'go on' like it was a game of Yo Mamma. I had unintentionally burned this guys chances of being selected for the committee. He hadn't done himself any favours by bragging about who he could get to the conference, and he equally failed to answer the up roaring question I had asked by repeating artists he had already named. It was probably 30 to 40 seconds later when a good friend of mine, Dean Barnett, leaned over to me with his phone flashing at me. I looked at him in confusion thinking 'what are you showing me your phone for?'. It was here when I had my Light Bulb moment.

His phone was on Twitter, it was flashing and updating at an alarming rate, I said to him 'what is it?', he then said those electric resonant words that will stay with me for the rest of my life, 'Your trending on Twitter'. My question had not only provoked massive physical up roar in the great hall of Bradford University, but I had  provoked a large twitter commentary that took over the site. People were tweeting 'Burned' and 'Someone had to say it', I had six offers of people buying me beers later that day, I was, in a sense, having my fifteen minutes of fame. My question did have side effects upon the rest of the comity proceedings. Questions for candidates in my opinion got harder, and in some cases down right stupid. I had provoked a change in attitude towards what should of been an easier ride for the candidates.

I digress, I had witnessed the power of social media and been at the forefront of it for less time than many reality T.V stars have, but long enough to understand that I made an impact. How many people in the world can say that they were trending on Twitter? or being tagged in online conversations? If I were to describe my feeling about the up roar at the time, then I would have to annotate them as some sort of high, I was riding on some sort of drug that wouldn't let me come down, the feeling was electric and really intense, and as with any drug there is always a crash and burn point. I had expected to come out of the seminar and be congratulated and applauded, only to find that people had moved on to another person attracting a crowd for something completely unrelated. 

Since the conference, I have started a Twitter account, as well as this very Tumblr account you read before you. I have noticed that social networking can be implemented in a professional setting to boost hype about figures in and out of the public eye, (something I reallly wasn't aware of before). In a small way I have also witnessed, and felt the high that 'famous' people must get when they are being talked about over the internet, in a positive way. I am in no way disappointed that my fame was short lived, (I'm not even sure you could class it as fame in the first place) if I work hard enough then maybe I could be famous again for producing a successful radio show, or a podcast, or being a good broadcaster. Only time will tell, but for now, I can look back on my fifteen minutes of fame as a great education into the world of social networking, and maybe harnissing its power to further my own career in the future.