Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly a shocking revelation; but every now and then Scoble comes up with something that makes even a battle hardened veteran of the New Media Douchewars like myself sit back, shake my head, and go “huwazat?!?”
In this particular instance it’s a bit that Robert wrote regarding the Facebook Terms of Service Copyright Landgrab. Linky here. Here’s a quick review, for those of you with actual things to do with your time. Recently Facebook posted a change to their Terms of Service that said, in essence, you are giving them a permanent and irrevocable license to all content that you post to Facebook and that Facebook can effectively use that content in any way they see fit.
I’m not going to comment on the specifics of the situation; mainly because I don’t care, and this sort of crap is exactly what I expect of an outfit like Facebook. But I am going to comment on Robert’s reaction; because I think that reaction is a prime example of what most of us already know: Robert Scoble is completely out of touch with reality.
Robert’s reaction can be summed up in one quote from the article:
Truth is it doesn’t matter.
Robert’s inability to grasp the issues here is manifest in two distinct ways. I’ll address each separately.
Social Networking Does Not Equal Marketing.
Social Networking is not Marketing; but the inability to grasp that fact is the defining characteristic of the New Media Douchebag. To a NMD like Scoble, every interaction; from posting a Twitter update, to talking to a person in a bar, to uploading a picture of their cat is an opportunity to promote the semi-mythical “personal brand” that they’ve built around themselves. This is something that makes the New Media Douchebags almost tragic figures to me; and is the main reason why I don’t bag on them as much as I could.
See, what the Robert and The New Media Douchebags never seem to get is that, for every one of them, there are millions of people using services like Facebook in order to do mundane things like reconnect and keep in touch with friends and family. These are people who are uploading content to share with the people that they care about and who, rightly, balk at the idea of a corporation asserting ownership of that content in order to make a buck.
Scoble’s advice to these people; which essentially boils down to either give up your ownership or host your own content is farcical when you consider his needs and resources as opposed to the needs and resources of the actual average Facebook user. It may be easy for Robert to relinquish control of his content in his overwhelming quest to push his personal brand; but I, and the majority of Facebook users have no brand to push; and no desire to use my snapshots to push it if I did.
Not All Marketing Is Created Equal.
The second way in which Robert misses the point is, honestly, not one that occurred to me as I read the initial article. It was something that was pointed out in this comment by Jim Goldstein. Here’s an excerpt:
I am continually perplexed by your stance on issues such as this. Your needs and use of social media sites are not one size fits all and your approach of guiding others to do the same of giving everything away for free is troubling. If it were so simple FastCompany wouldn’t be so concerned about protecting the work you do for them. Individuals who strive to leverage social media to make a name for themselves, market and pick up clients as a sole proprietorship or LLC suffer from such a blanket recommendation.
I’ll admit that this argument doesn’t resonate with me since I’m not interested in marketing; but it’s valid nonetheless. Unfortunately for those who are attempting to market themselves via social media, the sort of advice offered by the high priests of New Media Douchebaggery only really applies to other New Media Douchebags. Unless you’re willing to become a full-on Scoble; this sort of advice will hurt more than it will help.
More to the point; this attitude exemplifies one of my biggest criticism of the New Media Douchelite. They are incapable of understanding that they are in no way representative of the average user of the services they promote. They peer into the crowd, and see only their own face shining back at them. It’s no wonder that I sometimes pity them.
that’s the most perfect analysis of Scoble I’ve ever seen.
Another strong indicator of a New Media Douchebag is their former obsessions — while they might now be grinding themselves beneath the ‘social’ millstone, in the 90s they were all wrapped up in Macromedia Director, ‘CDROMs’, VR, ‘multimedia’ and cyber-anything. By tying their buzz-whoring lifestyle to their past blunders, it makes it much easier to convince people of the retardation of their current meme, and you don’t even have to mock Second Life!Having anything but disdain for Dave Winer is also a bad sign.
These people are nothing new. Calling it “personal branding” is just a new term for the same old self-promotion There’s nothing more annoying than a glad-handing sonofabitch whose only concern is that, at the end of the conversation (no matter what is being discussed) you remember his name, and his face. For preference, you’ll also regard him as an expert on anything and everything, the PR researcher’s “opinion leader” for your little circle.They’re always about themselves. Always the first to feign knowledge and the last to admit ignorance. Rarely confrontational, always ingratiating, and always out to weasel their way into the head of anyone who isn’t immediately put off by their greasy smile and oily conversation.They aren’t a recent invention, and they aren’t even original in their approach. They just have a new an wider vector for it, and a bigger swath of gullible mopes convinced that they’re “in the know.”
“They peer into the crowd, and see only their own face shining back at them.”Pure poetry, man.
Well, I was going to call you drunk and angry, but I think you have very valid points (you’re not drinking enough?). However, I think the main point that is getting missed is: it doesn’t matter to most people because most of their content has a negative value (it’s not worth the bits it polarizing). There’s nothing Facebook can do with all of the ‘data’ they have collected (other then stream a few more annoying ads your way). Pictures of a birthday? Your three best friends? Paul.
Angry Drunk,Semicolons are reserved for those who understand their use. Please don’t touch the semicolons. Simple commas are for you.
The problem that I have with Scoble is akin to the problem that Giles Bowkett has with Cory Doctorow: most of what he produces is an utter waste of my time to read, watch, or listen to, but there is an occasional gem. How to filter it is the problem.
While the principals at boingboing and their close friends are the ne plus ultra of New Media Douchebaggery, Giles Bowkett is a NMD too.
How do you spell cunt? Oh that’s right S C O B L E !
Love your site, came to this particular commentary via Welch. Thank you! For helping to disenfranchise the blowhards.
what the hell is a scoble ?….and I’m not sure you used douchebag enough in this post.
When spanking New Media Douchebags, you sort of have to use the word “douchebag” a bit.
The following YouTube clip is not specifically related to New Media Douchebags, but is related to Douchebag Entitletards in general. May I please present to you Louis C.K. with ‘Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy’And if that link gets borked, try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus
You forgot to mention one small, but important, tidbit. Without it, your whole post becomes, somehow cheapened.That is.”Fuck you, Scoble. Your writing has value than an equal mass and volume of ratshit.
ooops. that should be “less value”dammit.
Spanking New Media Douchebags? Angry Drunk, you just gave me wood!
“there is an occasional gem”
Only in the comments on his blog, never in the blather that Scoble writes himself.
I'm not really adding much to the conversation, except that it is refreshing to hear some commentary about “new media douchebags”, because the levels of douchebaggery is more likely what's slowing up twitter these days no matter what I hear about a potential virus. In a secondary account, I've been experimenting with adding everyone who follows. The speed at which followers are increasing is surprising to me, but the amount of them that seem to promote themselves as new media experts, social media gurus, brand builders, Internet marketers and the like is staggering. Typically there's nothing to back it up, except for an auto-DM about increasing your twitter followers, a link to a site to by an e-book on Internet marketing secrets, yet nothing to back up what they claim. And although I don't like to judge a book by it's cover, the photos and the backgrounds that accompany these folks tell me I wouldn't use their advice to create a photocopied flyer to hang in the local coffee shop to find my missing dog. There's no doubt that there are people that are intelligent, and are using social media to build something useful, and perhaps monetize it, but there's a lot of chaff to separate from the wheat. You know, maybe I added more to this conversation than I thought I was going to, but maybe that self-realization might be my inner-NMD talking.
I cant help but chuckle, great synopsis of Scoble.
I cant help but chuckle, great synopsis of Scoble.
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