We had an extremely interesting presenter come to our office on Tuesday afternoon to discuss social media and the impacts it has on our culture and what the future can bring.  More specifically, or at least what I took from the discussion, was in regards to how corporations (or businesses of all sizes) can use modern forms of communication to spread news and information about their work.

My work is architecture and we design schools that (hopefully) will have a positive impact on the community and foster eduction through learning and teaching.  We have struggled for years to truly grasp the appropriate way to get our message out through social medai to those that do not know our work.  Inevitably, little gets done if anything.  This happens for various reasons of course.  Sometimes it’s due to someone failing to step up and take the lead or, of course a fully booked calendar.  Unrelated to my office, but general speaking, there is a hesitation or possibly reluctance to ‘put yourself out there’ and bare all for the world to see.  It’s scary, but it offers you a voice to be honest and get your thoughts out there.  The great thing about social media is that everyone has a voice and can get involved in anything that interests them.  We all have a voice that can reach a greater number of people than ever before.  Our voices can be insightful and have the ability to stimulate conversation and connect through a common interest.  This is why i am proud to be a part of the sports card blogging community, albeit, a newer member.

I started this blog just 6 months ago and have connected with some great people online that share a similar interest as me.  As a matter of fact, I have connected with a wide variety of people that I would never have had the ability to connect with were it not for this blog or commenting on other blogs.  Our community is extensive and great.  We are diverse and offer a wide variety of perspectives to collecting from all ages, sports and eras of cardboard.

So how does any of this pertain to what we write about, and what can we do to make our hobby better?

I think we can do more to lift up the collecting community as a whole.  As we all know the hobby has nearly neglected the young collector by pricing them out of the same hobby we started as kids.  There is also the dilemma of all the short prints in flagship sets and of course the dreaded redemption card.  We also have the elephant in the room (sorry for the crappy cliche), how does Topps owning the MLB license for the next forever affect the baseball card industry?

I am obviously not bringing up anything ground breaking or new here, but I was hoping to start some dialogue or have a couple of comments from other bloggers out there to get their openings on the these items and anything else that may be bothering them with the hobby and blogging.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July and enjoyed their long weekend.