The Jetsons – a futuristic cartoon created in the 1960s and set 100 years later – told the story of the eponymous family and their day-to-day life. George Jetson worked two days a week, for an hour each day, and he commuted to his office in an aerocar that looked vaguely like a flying saucer. He would fly through the air, along with everyone else on their daily commute, and when he got to work his aerocar would pack down into the size of a suitcase until it was time for the trip home. There's also a cut scene in the opening where Mrs Jetson takes Mr Jetson's wallet, leaving him with the $10 note that he was originally offering her. Hanna-Barbera looked into the future and were able to tell that things were going to be different – we were all going to have aerocars, but they were unable to take the next leap, which was to further extrapolate that we probably wouldn’t need to physically go to work.

You may be wondering why I’m beginning a book on social media with a brief description of an elderly cartoon series, but what is interesting isn't the cartoon itself, but the attitudes shown towards the future, and how things were going to be different – or stay very much the same. I run courses on social media on a regular basis, and it's interesting to see how delegates view the concept of social media when we begin. Some people see social media as a whole new world, in which everything has changed, or at least has the potential to change; the tools to them are like the aerocar, promising excitement and difference. Other people on the same course will have had experience of some tools and will say that nothing has actually changed; as with the aerocar, Mr Jetson still has to go to work and put the car somewhere until he's ready for the trip home.

My delegates’ views of social media can therefore be seen in exactly the same way that Hanna-Barbera gazed into the future; everything changed but paradoxically everything remained the same. There is a very great temptation to view the future in the way that we have viewed the past; it’s easy, comforting and doesn't take very much hard work. However, it's also the wrong thing to do.