Barbara... If there was a 'LIKE' button, you would just have received one...
My professional field of work lies in Heritage and Culture. Say: the old stuff, about preserving things. But also: making them accessible by using all modern and today's possibilities for a wider public. I can see a clear parallel with my work here... Please allow me to explain.
I sense a lot of 'cold water fear' (that's a Dutch expression for being a little restrained / reserved for new developments, or things some one might not use or understand) for social media in the postings above.
If it was on to keeping new developments or 'evolutions' away because of a certain 'fear' what could go wrong with it, we would at this moment, never have owned a Varadero or a Crosstourer.
We would still ride something ancient like a Harley Davidson, we would
never had this wonderful forum but still struggling with an E-mail mailinglist (that's how this community was started back in 1998!).
The discussion after we changed from an E-mailinglist- environment to a Forum- environment back in 2003, was very, very much similar to the discussion above...
"I can't see the benefits of a forum besides the mailing list, a forum can't and might never replace the mailing list, etc etc...
"
Members asked to keep both online separately but after a few months, all activity from the E-mailinglist was gradually moved to the forum and the mailinglist - kept alive artificially - died a silent death...
Was that bad? Nope. I think that from the 'old' members who are still active here, most have totaly forgotten about how it started in first place... and that's a compliment for the way we have now equipped this forum.
It is quit amusing to see how history is repeated here again...
In a few years time from now, interaction with social media (for so far it hasn't been generally accepted by the public right now, right here!) will be just as normal and widely accepted by this community and in - lets say about 10 years from now - we will have a new development to keep this Forum and Community alive and interactive, the same discussion will pop up again...
The parallel with my work? Well... Heritage people are in general, very, very restrained and reserved. You simply don't harm old buildings listed as monuments and archeology is on its best as it is kept 'underground'. In my work, during a time span of 6 years, I managed to get these rather orthodox way how to deal with heritage, turned 180 degrees to a more progressive and un-orthodox way of dealing with all kinds of issues, ranging from preserving the old, extending monuments by adding state-of-the-art today's building technologies and story telling by using the means of today's information technologies.
The developments where watched with great suspicion by heritage 'experts' from even as high as our National Trust, governments and heritage professionals... But at the end... Our efforts have been rewarded with the National Heritage Award!
Short cut:
Embrace the possibilities which are available. This community already IS a legacy. Don't let it become history.
It is in my modest opinion better, to anticipate on new developments right on time - so we can keep things within the boundaries we all seek - than let them slip away and loose contact with reality.