SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEAD

By Joe Ingino Editor/Publisher ACCOMPLISHED WRITER/AUTHOR OF OVER 800,000 Published Columns in Canada and The United States “I live a dream in a nightmare world” Always Remember That The cosmic blueprint of your life was written in code across the sky at the moment you were born. Decode Your Life By Living It Without Regret or Sorrow. - ONE DAY AT A TIME - For the last 30 years. The newspaper industry has gone through some major transformations. I remember the introduction of desk top publishing. When computer first came out. No, one could afford one or knew how to operate one. Most publishing houses still used the old big over head light and wax set ups. The super print shops had electronic presses away from the old mechanical ones. I remember The Central first issue. It was put together by the folks that operated the big old press in Bowmanville. Every time they turned on the press. The whole building would rattle. Since those days. Computers appeared to take over. Those that did not adapt. Went out of business. I remember the Whitby Free Press. An antiquated press. Owners that did not really want to keep publishing. I approached them to buy them out and they would not budge. Today they are gone much like The Oshawa Times, Metroland and a slew of small newspapers that had no real direction or clue on what they were doing. Today, with the internet in every home. The newspaper industry seen it’s final challenge. Everyone predicted without knowing that the internet would replace hard copy. In part it did for a very short while. For the publishers that did not understand the science behind the net. They fell victims of their own ignorance. At the Central. We are experts in the technology. We, were one of two companies that brought the Internet to Durham. We seen the trends and the direction the internet is going. The internet in it’s infancy... was primitive and had limited use. With the introduction of browsers. The internet took a whole new life. Purpose. This is where the commercialization started. The browsers brought about the chats. From that point on. The internet began a bonanza for some and the downfall of the internet. Today, the internet is nothing short of a communications public toilet. From the millions of scams. To the never ending advertising. The internet has become a dangerous, unreliable place. Today, social media appears to be the new way for many municipalities have chosen to post important notices and events. This is in clear contravention of the Ontario Municipal Act. An Act that was set forth to safeguard from municipalities becoming the media and practicing censorship. The original intent of the act was to keep municipalities, accountable and transparent. An arms length away from becoming media. The act is clear in it stipulates that municipalities need to publish public notices in a newspaper that prints at least once a week in the local economy. Many Durham municipalities have confused and or altered the interpretation to only posting online and calling it wrongfully publishing. Leaving that aside. Look at any municipal postings on social media. Look at the comments, likes and or views. Minimal at best. Why? Most people do not go on line to look up notices. Many do not have or can afford the internet or a computer. Many seniors do not know how to navigate social media or very complex web site. Have you ever tried going on any municipal web sites. Impossible to find anything. Social media and the internet will soon transform. You will have to pay for the internet and much like TV channels. You will have to pay for the use of browsers...Commercial/informative/business/science and so on. This will be the death of the internet much like cable TV was the death the open to air broadcasting. Stay tunes.