Social Media, Active Technology, and What Have You

Jared Cohen-- the State Department's wunderkind who sent the e-mail that stopped the Twitter from going down during the Iran uprising-- had a piece up on HuffPo earlier this week explaining how social media is spreading freedom and prosperity around the world.  Then he explains why he hates the term "social media." Basically:

The term "social media" as we know it today appeared in July 2004 as a reference to participatory media like blogging, wikis, social networks, and related technologies. This is all well and good if technology was still primarily about connecting people to information, which is really the essence of media. However, this term has become obsolete in a world where technology has become a critical tool for connecting people not only to information and ideas, but also to other individuals, entities (NGOs, companies, governments, etc.), and more recently actual resources be they financial, medical, or judicial.

He frames the essence of the technology as its power to "connect," and suggests "connection technologies-- or ConnecTech" as an alternative.  I think Jared's right that the phrase is a little outmoded, but I'm not sure he's quite hit on the solution-- ConnecTech sounds more like a late-90's hardware startup than a revolutionary force in our society...

It's an interesting conversation to have (especially for a word nerd like me), as it makes you think about the essence of what these new tools are. Commenter LoraineAntrim had the best idea I've seen-- "Active Technology."  I'm still thinking.  Ideas?