Social media is changing us - and the world - for the better

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Social media is changing us - and the world - for the better

You know, one blog post isn't enough to cover all the ways in which that title is true. But for now:

Certain people seemed to be very concerned with blogging and social media being 'overhyped'. I think the only problem is inappropriate hype ("Blogging will bring our politicians into touch with the People!").

I don't think people have actually grasped the extent to which social media is changing, and will continue to change, humanity.

Posted by Jackie Danicki | May 1, 2006 in Blogging | Permalink

The most basic way that social media has changed the way that I (and many people I know) interact is that we are growing used to being able to meet individuals' minds before we meet them physically. In such circles, if you're going to an event, you check out the list of attendees and see whose blogs look interesting. When you get accustomed to this, you grow a bit frustrated with not being able to do this with others. It's a much more efficient way to interact - avoid those whose online presence reveals them to be not your cup of tea, seek out those who have interesting things to say, and speed up the process of getting from "Hi, nice to meet you," to "Tell me more about your take on X." I also think of my friend Robert Avrech, whose family I have stayed with in Los Angeles, whose daughter's wedding I attended out there (the same daughter I played host to when she and her friends were stranded in London on short notice). I actually met Robert's daughter in person before I had met him; I found him through mutual blogger friends, on his blog, where he was writing of his grief over the death of his beloved son Ariel. Where else but the blogosphere would an introverted, 50-something Orthodox Jewish screenwriter in LA become friends for life with a 20-something Ohio girl living in London? And, as Doc Searls says today:

Lately I've been suspecting that the blogosphere is a home improvement job on the humansphere.

He points to one of the blogs I never, ever neglect to read, Dear Elena, started by Dan Steinberg the day after his six-year-old daughter died. Doc also points to Remembering Allie, a blog post from Terry Heaton which I read last night and which made me feel even more deeply grateful for the health of my partner and family. I read the news of the death of Terry's wife via Jeff Jarvis the other day, and actually typed up a link to it from my personal blog, but didn't publish it. I figured, "Well, I don't know the guy. It might seem creepy to say he's in my thoughts." Terry writes:

The sense of loss that I felt that morning was overwhelmed by a fear so profound that I can't even begin to describe it. My whole world was torn out from beneath me, and I was scared to death. The only -- and I mean only -- place I felt safe while I was awaiting the arrival of family and friends was right here at my keyboard. If I moved even a few steps away, I began to feel suffocated and would race back. I wrote the post and I sent an e-mail, and what happened after that kept me going. Hundreds upon hundreds of people responded, and I can't tell you how important that was to me.

That's the last time I talk myself out of extending compassion to another human being. Terry hits the nail on the head with this:

I believe -- as Doug Rushkoff wrote in his book "Get Back in the Box" -- that the internet isn't a media phenomenon or a technical phenomenon as much as it is a social phenomenon. In this sense, he wrote, it will change everything. In our increasingly postmodern culture, the greatest social connection we have beyond family is our tribe, a concept both practical and esoteric. We choose our tribe, whereas we don't choose our family.

And on the morning of Allie's death, this is what it meant to Terry, and this is what it means for all of us:

People I didn't know (I'm apparently a member of many other tribes) shared their thoughts, poems, condolences and experiences, and that was enormously helpful to one so adrift in fear and the unknown. This is profound in its implications for the future of humankind, and I hope you all can see that. We are not alone. None of us. We need each other, and we have the shared knowledge and capacity for compassion that will save the world. I mean that with all my heart. Our institutions have failed, but we will not.

Individuals are the basic unit not just of any business, but of this world, and those who think the blogosphere is some kind of blessed embrace of collectivism or Marxism are wrong for precisely this reason: It is the ease with which individuals can connect with one another across this network which brings about the spectacular effects that it does. There is no top-down imposition on these individuals. There is no governing body deciding what each individual's 'needs' and 'abilities' are, or how frivolous or worthy those might be. These are millions of individuals deciding for themselves what is in it for them, and getting from it what they want. Sometimes that's a recipe or a video of someone singing a stupid song, and sometimes it's comfort after the death of a child or loved one. If you think that's not going to continue to have hugely positive implications for us and this planet, think again.

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