Steroids As The Social Media Holy Grail

I am watching ESPN and shuffling through Google Reader. Here’s my deep thought: when Barry Bonds (allegedly) used steroids, it was bad.

We all agreed on that.

But when we talk about social media tools, referring to the robustness of a a new application as “like X on steroids” is perhaps one of the greatest early adopter endorsements it can receive.

Some examples:

• FriendFeed is “Twitter on steroids” (via Fast Company)
• SnapStream is “TiVo on steroids” (via Search Engine Land)
• The semantic web is “tagging on steroids” (via Hutch Carpenter)

My favorite, though, is Andrew Shue, founder of CafePress describing the company’s community as, “a Tupperware party on steroids.”

So while actual steroids are bad, steroids as metaphor are, in fact, quite positive. Thank goodness I don’t have to kids to explain that one to!

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