The Great Depression

I was watching The American Experience PBS documentary on The Great Depression. John Kenneth Galbraith made an observation that there is a financial memory of twenty years. That is the period of time before a new generation of suckers is born. In the 1920's credit for the ordinary person just made its debut and the entire economy was heavily leveraged and unregulated. People's sentiments were driven by psychics who made astrological pronouncements. The main point was that there were panics to get in on a perceived gravy train or exit when the market was collapsing. Galbraith termed the sucker mentality "grand illusion". Newspapers were all on the take and painted wonderful pictures of stocks such as RCA and Standard Oil.

I mention the above because I think social media might have the same aspects of grand illusion. How much real value is being created by people who don't take time to write carefully or who are not subject to editorial oversight? Influencers on the net including lobbyist groups with a hidden and not so hidden agenda can abuse this medium to sway opinion. Nothing new here - but I believe there is a direct correlation between the level of hate in politics to the advent of the Internet.

So, for those wanting to explore business opportunities in Social Networking I would ask are you creating something of real value? Will your products or services help make people's lives and society better?