1. SHARE
THIS
LIVE
SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE 2013
11 JULY, LONDON #CIPRSM

2. SHARE THIS LIVE
SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE 2013
#CIPRSM
SOCIAL MEDIA:
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
FROM THE ROMANS TO THE INTERNET
TOM STANDAGE
@tomstandage

3. What is social media?

4. “Media we get from other people,
exchanged along social connections,
creating a distributed discussion
or community”

6. Social-media environments
have existed for centuries

7. MEPL

8. “I sent you on March 24th
a copy of Balbus’ letter
to me and of Caesar’s
letter to him”— Cicero

9. “You say my letter has been widely
published: well, I don't care. Indeed,
I myself allowed several people to
take a copy of it” — Cicero

10. RGM Köln

11. “After this letter has been read to
you, see that it is also read in the
church of the Laodiceans and
that you in turn read the letter
from Laodicea.”— Paul, Colossians

12. Wikimedia

13. “Hardly 14 days had passed when
these propositions were known
throughout Germany and within
four weeks almost all of
Christendom was familiar
with them.”— Friedrich Myconius

14. “They are printed and circulated far
beyond my expectation.”
— Martin Luther

16. MEPL, London Lib

17. “The Coffeehouses particularly are
very commodious for a free
Conversation, and for reading…
all manner of printed News…
and other Prints that come out
Weekly or casually.”

18. “[The coffeehouse] admits of no
distinction of persons,
but gentleman, mechanic, lord
and scoundrel mix, and are all
of a piece.” — Samuel Butler, 1668

19. Beinecke RBML/Yale/Flickr

20. So what happened
to old social media?

23. MEPL

24. But now social media is back
— thanks to the Internet

25. “New”
media
“Old”
media
2000

26. “Really old”
media
“New”
media
“Old”
media
2000183360BC

27. Ancient social-media systems
hold lessons for us today

28. 1. Is social media merely a
dangerous distraction
that wastes time?

29. Social networking

30. Social notworking

31. “Why doth solid and serious
learning decline, and few or none
follow it now in the
university?Because of coffee-
houses, where they spend all their
time.”
— Anthony Wood, Oxford, 1670s

32. “Hours are spent in talking, and less
profitable reading of
newspapers…scholars are so greedy
after news that they neglect all for
it…”
— Cambridge don, 1670s

33. “Great enemies to diligence and
industry…the ruin of many serious
and hopeful young gentlemen and
tradesmen…”— pamphlet, 1673

34. Enemies of diligence and industry?
No, crucibles of innovation!

35. 2. What is the role of social media
in revolutions?

36. “Fromthe rapid spread of the theses,
I gather what the greater part of the
nation thinks of indulgences.” —
Martin Luther

37. Social media does not cause
revolutions but helps them along
by synchronising opinion
and acting as an “accelerant”

38. 3. Is social media a fad?

39. “Really old”
media
“New”
media
“Old”
media
183360BC 2000

40. Social media is not a fad.
The mass-media era
was a historical anomaly

41. Modern social-media users are heirs
to a centuries-long tradition

42. Blogs = pamphlets
Microblogs = coffeehouses
Tumblr/Pinterest = commonplace books

43. SHARE THIS LIVE
SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE 2013
#CIPRSM
SOCIAL MEDIA:
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
FROM THE ROMANS TO THE INTERNET
TOM STANDAGE
@tomstandage