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For someone who has yet to master the remote control, understanding the ins and outs of social media is, to say the very least, a daunting task.

Flickr, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook and LinkedIn; well, it’s like learning a new language; so you can quite understand it when I say it’s ‘all Greek to me’.

And the terminology! Don’t get me started. I’ve no choice but to change my way of thinking – to realize that hash tags (#) are more than meaningless buttons on telephones and that ‘to re-tweet’ is not the sound a cardinal makes over and over from the tree in my back garden.

I am of the generation who actually existed without computers. Yes, there are a few of us still around to tell the tale. We conversed with friends by phone, not on a FaceBook wall. We had long chats using complete sentences and no abbreviations and, like texting, we had instantaneous feedback.

There was no email cc; so if we wanted to relay the same message, we just hung up the phone and dialled the next person. Did I mention that was with a rotary dial phone? Perhaps some of you have seen such a device in the Smithsonian? (likely beside a vinyl LP or an 8 track player).

We interacted with those in our circle of family and friends. We bought goods & services locally, and our choices were often limited. And if I wanted a new phone, well I contacted Bell Telephone (in which case a choice was not an option).

If a friend moved on, we inevitably, lost touch.

The world has definitely changed.

Imagine – that friend I lost touch with as a teenager now has a Facebook page!

The art of communication has changed with Social Media. And I realize that to be successful in business you need to follow the trends; to know your customers and what they want.

So if that means I’ve got to learn a whole new language – than so be it! ‘Are you going out tonight’ = r u going out 2nite? I can do this!

After all, the English language is ever changing; and words, well words are often up for interpretation. I remember my first trip to Ireland to meet the in-laws; a press was a cupboard, a cooker was a stove, braces were suspenders and a plaster was a Bandaid. By the end of the trip, I wasn’t throwing the Kleenex in the garbage; I tossed the tissue in the bin.

It will take some time to get my head around this Social Media Explosion.

Time, of course, is the operative word. It’s a world where it takes seconds to send a text, minutes to find a long lost friend and just a small click to find a great software developer.

So you’ll have to be patient with me. And if there are others out there who remember LP’s, 8 tracks and rotary dial phones, please post me a letter, double spaced and mail it to……..oops, old habits are hard to break! I mean, send me a tweet @CoreSolution …

- Cathy Lawn

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