Despite the blog, I'm an "old world" kind of girl

Yesterday I experienced the delicious irony of discussing web 2.0, social networking and internet revolution in Economist magazine's boardroom, whilst enjoying a leisurely lunch with men in suits and ties whilst taking in a view across over some of the oldest and grandest bits of London. Talk about old world clashing with new. I had to confess, as a sipped a venerable French red and eyed the roof of Prince Charles' palace, that I rather liked the old world.

I would not, as per recent suggestions by Sir Elton John, advocate the abandonment of the internet. Even the most traditional amongst us can find great value. (Did you know there's a web site that provides family trees for all the characters in Jane Austen novels?) I am, after all, a blogger, an internet banker, and ... on most days ... a home worker through the magic of my broadware line and some clever bits of software. I love the internet and would not turn back the hands of time.

But there are things that worry me. The move to do it yourself journalism, the rise of blogs as news and the idea that people can graze the internet to find out what's going on in the world scares the hell out of me. Publications like the Economist play a role that can't be matched by anything in this new world: providing expert editors to sort, validate and prioritise, so we can find out what's important, true and real.

And social networking? Fine if you get out there and do real networking. I'm happy to have a presence on "Linked In", but I use it as a repository of people I've already met, not a way to create virtual friends and colleagues. I worry about the social skills of anyone whose friends were made, and relationships developed, in cyberspace. They're probably fast typers, but can they make small talk at a cocktail party and captivate a business dinner with their engaging conversation? Those qualities may seen trivial, but they remain key to moving up the corporate ladder. I've already seen them as sorely lacking in most executives I've worked with, putting them at serious disadvantage when they're mixing and mingling at executive events. And these guys are mostly the pre-internet generation. I shudder to think what's coming.

Finally, there's the shortening attention span. Again, I must plead guilty. I find it hard, now, to be on a conference call without also checking e-mail, and perhaps holding an IM conversation. Just doing one thing seems a bit wasteful of the day's time. However I'm still old enough, and mentally sluggish enough, to sit quietly with a good book for hours on end, or concentrate exclusively on conversation at the dinner table. How will society change when every moment is like my conference calls, driven by the need to do multiple things and the inability to concentrate for more than two minutes? It's not a promising picture.

I must plead guilty. I find it hard, now, to be on a conference call without also checking e-mail, and perhaps holding an IM conversation.

Will we work with the Economist to explore this trend? Perhaps. If we do, I suspect that none of the web surfing social networkers about whose impact on the future we are speculating would actually read the report. It will no doubt be too traditional and take too long to get through.