Long live analog networks!

That’s the feeling I got after attending two graduation ceremonies this month at Brophy and NAU. It confirmed my belief that networks belonging to the much derided ‘analog’ era are not about to lose their mojo. The more I write about and inhabit social networks, the more I am convinced of this. Just because we can and do upload our photos to Flickr and Picasa, and just because we can program our phones to ping us when someone writes on our Facebook Wall doesn’t mean our digital lives are superior.

Here’s the set up: At Northern Arizona University, the commencement ceremony was streamed live off the school web site, but the bleachers were jam packed. At Brophy, at my son’s high school graduation on Saturday, the group of giddy high-schoolers seated in front of us continued to take photos of themselves on camera phones, announcing “Myspace picture!” “Smile, you’re on Facebook!” etc. Damn digital natives, huh? Not quite. The reality of it was, this ‘band of sisters’ invested three hours in an overcrowded gymnasium to witness an analog event and cheer on their friends. Uploading those analog moments onto their social networks was only ancillary to being there.

Analog is the glue. The ‘band of brothers’ theme was a strong theme at the Brophy event with many speakers –faculty, the valedictorian etc– giving credit to that human dimension of the four years gone by. This, in a school that has all but replaced text books with tablet PCs! Yesterday at home, these digital natives were not geeking out over an Xbox game, or bluetoothing each other pictures from their camera phones. Instead they indulged in something involving old fashioned analog tools of pencils and paper: A game of Pictionary!