Quote of the day: social media

This comes from a piece on baseball (sports) and the justified hype about a new young player, Bryce Harper, who is 18 years old. See "With Nationals rookie Bryce Harper, timing is everything" from the Washington Post.

Tom Boswell writes:

One problem for the Nats is that fame for the unproven seems to rise exponentially with the multiplication of new media platforms.

I feel this way about some of the hype about new media generally, and its application to civic discourse and civic engagement particularly, especially with regard to planning and social organization. It all comes down to platforms and what they enable (also see the book Maximarketing, about direct marketing, but still relevant).

Ultimately the issue is substance vs. form.

If something is cool and neat but with little substance, the lack of substance needs to be