Social media is one of the hottest buzzwords in tech circles. But can you actually get paid to play with Facebook at the office? Don't show your boss this Mashable article written by Ben Parr asking if social media jobs are here to stay. It only validates the lack of any hard evidence. Parr says social media roles — either a single person or small team who comment on blogs, send and receive Twitter messages, maintain fan pages on Facebook, and use other similar Web tools — are capable of increasing reach, users, traffic, and revenue. Examples? None. Numbers? Zero.

Save for one very special correspondent's valiant efforts, all was quiet on the Internet at the beginning of this week. The Christians were busy celebrating the birth of Jesus, and the rest of you, your new JesusPhones. It's not grown much louder since. And some, including professional echo chamberist Jeremiah Owyang, are having trouble dealing with the change in pace.

"Open source products are often high on innovation but low on user experience," self-proclaimed "Web strategist" Jeremiah Owyang notes on his blog. "They come across as geeky, not user friendly, and sometimes, just ugly." The solution? These guys! Who are so just the opposite. Oh the teeth, oh the hair, oh the neck beard and chin strap, too.

Self-described Web strategist Jeremiah Owyang has posted a 1,544-word monstrosity to explain the significance of MySpace and Facebook's new ad models. If you have time to read it, you're probably also adding friends on MySpace all day. If you have a real job, here are Owyang's insights in 100 words.

Self-described "Web strategist" Jeremiah Owyang, the director of corporate media strategy at beleaguered video site PodTech announced on his blog that he is leaving the troubled startup to become an analyst at Forrester Research. At last, a real company. Congratulations, Jeremiah! So, who's next to escape from PodTech? Should we start the countdown to job-seeking value-adding videoblogger Robert Scoble's departure?

How do you justify producing content (in this case, PodTech) featuring your own employees (corporate video producer and blogger, Robert Scoble, and Jeremiah Owyang, web strategist) spouting basic platitudes devoid of knowledge? Splice them together with video of Marissa Mayer, the eminently respectable, famous, and truly significant Google VP!