The World of Social Media

I attended a social networking conference called F5 yesterday and while it was interesting and there were some good round table discussions, my purpose of going was to see the key-note speaker, Malcolm Gladwell. If you haven't heard of him he's written 4 books: Blink, Tipping Point, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw and also writes a regular column in the New Yorker. I find the most intriguing thing about the way he writes is that he always make you think; makes you look at the world around you and question something. Personally, I love playing the Devil's Advocate but I don't have anywhere near the talent Gladwell has. And as the key-note speaker at F5 he didn't disappoint.

Given that it was a social media conference, you'd assume that Gladwell would be speaking about the topic and you'd be right, however he talked about the cost of social media. His premise was that whenever we develop a new technology that has the potential to galvanize people we celebrate its benefits to the detriment of its costs. Inventions like the telegraph, telephone, radio and internet have taken away from our ability to interact with people on a personal level; where 50 years ago we used to have a close network of people that included our families and neighbourhood; today this network has been reduced to our family. And while twitter, facebook, and foursquare are great vehicles to get people talking they rarely turn those discussions into something that can make change.

His reasoning was that social media creates acquaintances, not friends.....creates weak ties, not strong ones...he used Obama as an example. 3 years ago no one would've given him any chance to become president, but because of his use of the internet for fundraising and getting his message out there, he propelled himself into the presidency like no other person in history; however a year after he became President he had one of the lowest approval ratings ever after his first year in office, why? Because the ties he created were weak ones that were easily broken.

Trust is such an integral part of the change, you have to trust the person you're working with and that trust can rarely be fostered at a distance, you have to know who that person is and know them in order to trust them. Think about it....if you really needed someone, how many people would stick by you? 4....5....6....maybe; and how many 'friends' on facebook do you have? Sure those 5, but probably 400-500 more. Social media gives you the ability to exercise your freedom of expression, without any of the consequences; however this sacrifices trust. It's incredibly hard to trust someone that you haven't met.

Gladwell wasn't advocating against social media, rather trying to point out its faults that are ignored due to its benefits and currently popularity. The social media platform can be used to begin revolutions....political, environmental, sexual, spiritual....however it alone cannot lead to them. Why do you think the Green Revolution in Iran failed? Social media brought people together because that group quickly fell apart because of weak ties, a lack of accountability, and trust Once a certain point is reached you have to go outside of the medium and actively get involved and not sacrifice the freedom of action for the freedom of expression as occurs so frequently.