Changing media habits...Radio yet timeless

The term “social media” is overused and higly hyped jargon in the communication industry. While the web has brought a sea change in many ways the way we consume media.

Here’re what I believe are the key broad changes.

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Social media encourages people encourages content creation. Here my role has changed from being a consumer to a participant in a larger ecosystem.Where I feel free to share anything from being my views to ideas. For the first time I have got a sense that I am an active player in the fileds I always desiered to be in rather than passive watcher.

Social media has freed me off traditional media and media consumption timings. Compared to the times when I used to get up early in the morning and be the first one to hold the news paper and start my day with smell of the fresh print or watching the news at 10:00 religiously, to now when I hardly watch TV or even read the newspaper these days.

Now I hear headlines from my retired father at home or get alerts through my google. And if it’s an interesting video it has to be youtube. I prefer reading blogs as it gets me different views and point of views of different people. It is always available, easy to use and serves me fresh content.

Though a lot is fast changing, I still fail to understand how still, people cannot imagine their lives without the idiot box… With lifestyle changing spending more and more time away from their home, content will eventually have to move away from fixed show timings, there are possibilities worth exploring around buying specific content that you like and watch it at your leisure on the phone or computer.

Big shift in the way I consume news is the fun and the kick in content “discovery”, rather than being tied to the content you subscribed for, and ability to select what I want at a time that suits me. It has made content timeless for me. So, I am free to go back to look at the content repeatedly with ease.

Best of all, my content is no longer confined to me. It’s out there in the open – for sharing. Always available to everyone – on demand!

Many of these changes we see in this new web-driven world are very disruptive, changing attitudes, behaviour and even ways of doing business.

I remember going to a shop in my home town that had a best collection of audio in the city, not to buy but to record audio cassettes. Haha!! I still remember buying a blank audio cassette go to the shop selct songs from his list and get one of my favourite artists album, Now I don’t even have a player to play it. With music moving to digital formats, the aviability of content became portable. Not onbly one can listen to a song on the move but even buy it on the move.

The iPod has stolen from all other players it also provided a great interface to run through and organize your music on-the-go. And, then phones added to the rage.

While a lot has changed, the “radio” as a medium is still is in fashion, the platform may have changed to streaming radio.

I still listen to FM while travelling or on a Sunday afternoon at home. And I strated thinking why is it that FM radio the oldest medium after print and still survived the change.

One reason that I find is it’s commonality with the social media. It is real time, with content that matters to me and interactive.