The phrase "social media" has become popular in agriculture today. I think it's just a new twist on a very old idea.
Let's examine a trend that has swept as communication of late called social media. All of you have heard of it and I'd hazer to guess that most are participating using its poster children; Twitter and Facebook. Why, even Gene Hall from Texas Farm Bureau is Tweeting. But is this new? I don’t think so. Farmers and ranchers have communicated with like-minded folks since time began. Let me give you an example. Three decades ago I led a cowboy’s life in the lava rock grasslands of north east New Mexico. 
We weren’t internet savvy, why, the phone lines were above ground. We lived so far from town that we used dry ice to keep our groceries cold on the way home from the store, and we only shopped every two weeks. We were so removed that when you saw a neighbor’s truck on the fence line that you drove a mile and visited. One such neighbor was David McDaniel. We shared a fence line. His pasture was called Gallegos and it had 8000 acres. My pasture was the Glen Jones and it was 5400 acres. Each Thursday we’d meet out at a gap and visit. It wasn’t scheduled, it just happened that our cattle feeding salt block, wind mill checking cowboy duties just 
got placed us there at that time. We’d visit about work, friends back in South Texas or what we were doing that weekend for amusement. Sounds a lot like Facebook doesn’t it? The parallels are amazing, and I’d bet you that a section or two north of us the same thing was going on, and a mile west, and two south, and on, and on and on. See, nothing has changed except time and method. Of course, Facebook would have connected all of us together, but folks seek each other out. We form relationships based on shared experience and our lives are enriched by them. Why just the other day a new Facebook friend of mine Billy Brown from Panhandle, 
Texas shared a photo he took from inside his grain truck through a bug splattered windshield. He was driving a load of corn up to dump at a local elevator. I was suddenly transported 35 years. I was a teenager again. In my mind it was harvest time in the panhandle. Can you see it? It’s all about shared experience. So whether it’s on the fence line or your DSL line through social media, share one with someone today. Your life will be richer for it.