For a while, I’ve predicted (hoped?) the term “blogger” will go away. At the same time, I’ve predicted the word “blog” will probably stick around. My argument goes something like this: In english, an individual is rarely, if ever, referred to as an “emailer” or “telephoner.” E-mail and telephones are merely powerful tools we use in our business and personal lives — in the same way we can use blogs or the wide array of tools now called “social media.”

Last week, I gave a little push back to predictions that “blogging” is “peaking” as I found the factors used in the analysis leading to such predictions a bit stretching. However, after reading this post announcing the end to an annual Paris conference attended heavily by bloggers, it made me think of my earlier “telephoner” prediction. I now would like to join with others who are predicting a “peak” of some sort. My prediction, however, is that we’ve reached the peak of the era when social media was new. We’ve reached, in Churchillian terms, the end of the beginning of social media. At least I hope we have. And I think those of us who want to encourage others to use social media tools to share their ideas or creations or concepts or insights should be glad these tools have gone so mainstream that Time would do us all a favor and (perhaps unwittingly) declare an end of the beginning of the era when social media tools and platforms and networks were something special.

Last year, I pointed to a post by blogger Rich Karlgaard (that was a joke as Rich — despite his regular blogging — is better known for being an A-list magazine publisher) and his explanation of the term top-tick:

“At Forbes we like to say that when a story appears on the cover of Time of Newsweek, it is “top-ticked.” Which means, if Time or Newsweek declares a new trend, the trend has peaked. If Time or Newsweek loves a hot stock, sell.

Time, by declaring social media the story of the year, has top-ticked its uniqueness, specialness, and new-newness. And that’s a good thing. I believe those of us who believe that online tools should enable self-expression of all types (comedy, journalism, advocacy, commerce, art) should want the term blogger to become about as unnecessary as the term telephoner.

Technorati Tags: bloggers, socia media

(From NFL.com) “The Tennessee Titans found three more ways to keep their magical ride alive.”

Five wins in a row (7-out-of-the-past 9). The last four are some of the most improbable games I’ve ever watched. While Vince Young wasn’t a major factor in today’s game (Sports Illustrated cover jinx?), it didn’t matter. Whenever a team scores three defensive touchdowns, the odds are rather high they’ll win. The Titans’ offense was on the field only 15 or so minutes of the game — something I’ve never seen. Pacman Jones continues to convince the home folks to see and hear no evil when they learn his off-field absurdity of the week.

But my favorite star of the game Cortland Finnegan, the seventh-round draft pick rookie defensive back who scooped up a fumble and ran 92 yards for a touchdown. If he keeps this up, I think I’ll nominate him for alumni of the year of the college he attended about three decades after I did.

Later: Another reason for the surreal nature of today’s game was the weather. It is seven days before Christmas Eve and the game-time temperature was 69 degrees. Even “the shady side” of the stadium was comfortable in a polo shirt. Two weeks ago, my feet were miserably cold during the Colts game. Today, I saw several fans wearing shorts.

Update: Following up on my mention of Cortland Finnegan, I wanted to point to this most amusing quote from Monday’s Tennessean: “It’s not as if Samford is a pipeline to the pros. The last time a Samford player was drafted was in 1969 .” Geez, that is even before when I attended — however, I do recall watching them play in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl during that era. Actually, when I was a student there, Samford did away with their football program. It was re-started later.

Technorati Tags: nashville, nfl, titans

Geez, it seems like it was only two years ago when blog was the 2004 word of the year. That was nothing compared to this: Folks who do book reviews on Amazon, write Wikipedia entries, post videos on YouTube and (if you read this blog, you know the etc., etc.) are Time Magazine’s person(s?) (people?) of the year. Time even got a magazine editor who made all his reporters blog this year write one of the stories in the cover-package.

Geez, this Youzer generated content thing has come a long way.

Actually, the “group” person of the year concept is not without precedent and many times, the person selected is representative of a broader movement. In the past, “women” (1975), “young people (1966),” and “middle Americans (1969)” have been designated.

Also, “the geek” — be it a tech or media one — has been a consistent selection over the past couple of decades. Here are some that fall into that category:

2005: Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono for philanthropy.

1999: Jeff Bezos.

1997: Andy Grove.

1991: Ted Turner.

1982: The computer.

Technorati Tags: social media