Fermentation and Social Networking Media

I have been doing a lot of reading about social networking media (Facebook, Twitter, etc). Concurrently, I have also been doing a lot of brewing of Belgian Beer. Both are passions of mine. There are actually parallels between the two. Let me explain.

Fermentation occurs when yeast is put in a liquid at a warm temperature with a lot of sugar. This equals explosive and exponential growth. It is pretty elementary and not exactly high level Chemistry. Given the right ingredients and conditions, fermentation will happen. It is inevitable. Now, the beverage might not taste good for a lot of reasons but that does not mean that the fermentation did not happen (the conversion of sugar to ethanol). Good brewers know how to both produce and consume the beverages created wisely.

Social Networking Media has many analogous variables. There is an yeast-like audience waiting to consume information through technology (i.e. the sugar and equipment and the process) and the goal is to distill something out of it that appeals to the appetite and taste. Because of the amount of information available, the yeast has a lot to work with. Like the alcoholic beverage, the resulting concoction might be nasty or good...or somewhere in between. That information has been consumed is a given; whether then information is positive in effects or not is not as certain.

Jesus used the example of fermentation to extol both His good teaching and the Pharisees bad teaching. The ingredients (quality) and the skill (methodology) of the brewer determines the product. The product itself needs to be consumed wisely (carefully and circumspectly).

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