Can we really create a social consciousness revolution? We finally have the tools, but will we use them wisely?
There is a lot of talk today about the new social media, which includes: YouTube, Wikipedia, facebook, Delicious, MySpace, blogs, or the Smartboards that are bringing the transformative potential of the Internet into our children’s classrooms. It is clear that social technology is increasing the amount of interaction and information sharing happening globally.
There is a plethora of blogs, discussions and forums debating the pros and cons and “How To’s” of this new media/marketing phenomenon. Small, entrepreneurial entities are the early adopters, with the larger companies trying feverishly to catch up.
The question I have is whether or not all this energy is having an impact on raising social consciousness and creating positive social transformation?
The negative impact that media (traditional or new) can have on the mass psyche is well known. I often wonder if the current global recession would be as severe without all the media doom and gloom naysayers.
Obviously, the potential to spread despair is obvious, but I am encouraged by the number of recent examples of positive mass social consciousness raising:
- Obama’s social media campaign, which resulted in over a billion emails and text messages sent out to millions of people with his message of Hope, Change and Action.
- Who wasn’t touched by the story of hope and inspiration of Randy Pausch when he delivered his famous Last Lecture across cyberspace to millions of viewers?
- The recent phenomenon, Playing for Change, was designed to inspire, connect and bring peace to the world through music. Their YouTube teaser videos spawned a mass viral initiative that resulted in millions of views of their documentary’s trailers before they even launched (which is coming out in the Spring of 2009).
- On the spiritual front, authors like Ekart Tolle, with his message of a New Earth, and Deepak Chopra’s I take a vow of non-violence, have been able to reach an unprecedented size of audience with their messages of hope and peace.
- Al Gore, with his Solutions for the Climate Crisis, helped create an incredible environmental social movement.
These are pretty large examples to make the case. There are other, less known examples, like the organization DeafUK, which is connecting deaf people in a way that wasn’t possible until recently. Or, iJourney.org, which started when a couple of people got together to sit in silence once a week in their homes and has since transformed into a community of almost 60,000 people from across the world meeting in cyberspace.
One of the most innovative and touching stories comes from a friend of mine whose life-long friend was dying of cancer. He put a posting on eBay called “Eleven to Heaven” promising to deliver messages to loved ones who had passed on when he got to heaven. The money he raised on eBay was to help his family cope financially when he died.
On a personal level, I see the power of this new social media each day. Whether it was when my seventy-something mother became my “friend” on facebook, or the multiple inspirational emails I receive, like this week’s favorite: Are You Going to Finish Standing. Because I am a half-full kind of person, I would like to believe that all this connecting is having a positive transformative impact.
When I was the Director of Marketing and Fundraising for Plan Canada, I experienced first-hand the incredible stimulating effect an inspiring story can have on a community, whether local or global. That is why I would like to hear from you.
If you know of a story that is inspiring, positive and about connecting us through the new social media, I would like to hear it. Add a comment to this blog, add a link to a story on your blog or Web site or send me an email. In the future, I plan to highlight some of the most inspiring and unique stories in my blog.
Posted by: Lianne Bridges
Lianne is a founding partner of Bridges Horizon, providing Marketing Transformation Consulting Services. Lianne has spent the past 20+ years managing and consulting across an array of sectors from B2B to Not-for-Profit, including such world-class organizations as: Aeroplan, Bombardier, Pfizer, Nabisco, Southam News, United Technologies, the YMCA, Plan Canada and Alcan, to name a few.
Here are two examples of how new social media has impacted our local(GTA) community. One example has even been published in the Harvard Business Review:
Toronto Transit Camp/Metronauts – A group of bloggers who wanted to improve our transit system and decided to do so in a positive way through the use of social media.
links:
http://www.zinio.com/pages/HarvardBusinessReview/Feb-08/240962833/pg-28
http://metronauts.ca/
#HoHoTo – A Christmas party created by a number of Twitter users from Toronto in order to raise money for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank. The event raised $25,000 and lots of non-perishable food.
links:
http://hohoto.ca/
http://www.robhyndman.com/2008/12/18/hohoto-2008-toronto-twitterers-give-big-to-the-daily-bread/
Hi Lianne, Thanks for your blog. I really enjoyed your article about the importance of Obama’s words in business. To your question about whether new social media is creating social transformation, here are a couple of examples:
On WiserEarth, a web 2.0 project, a social network and editable international directory of 110,000+ nonprofits and socially responsible organizations:
- a grassroots NGO called the African Child Peace Initiative is added to WiserEarth.org by a volunteer online community editor. The organization finds out that it has been listed in the directory. It needs used computers to promote literacy and recycling in Liberia. Through searching the WiserEarth directory, the ACPI makes the connection and gets in touch with the nonprofit InterConnection, which collects second and third-hand computers for those who need them.
- A global effort to link and empower women working on environmental issues around the world relies on the WiserEarth network to overcome geographical boundaries, share resources and get the training they need to address environnmental challenges in their local communities. The Women’s Earth Alliance shares discussions, events and resources among its 148 members and keeps them up to date with what’s happening in their communities.
Hi Lianne,
Thank you for sharing your insightful entry. I sincerely believe that we are in the midst of social transformation and are awakening to a new earth. Obama’s speech, although inspiring, was very pragmatic. Any change that we are hoping to witness will only be realized if people WORK for that change. Our current generation of young North Americans has experienced a relatively peaceful and plentiful existence. Consumer spending, glamorous Hollywood lifestyles and instant gratification have been a big part of their reality. Everyone is a winner and everyone gets an award at the end of the game!! How easy will it be to change that perception? It certainly needs to start at home and to paraphrase Gandhi, be the change that you wish to see in the world.
That being said, if anyone can generate the energy that is needed to stimulate fundamental change, Barack Obama can!! Apart from being an eloquent speaker, a natural leader and a charismatic politician, he is in touch with the people. We receive regular e-mails from “him” reminding us that we will be an integral part of his success. He cannot do it without us! He understands how the current generation perceives their world. He uses technology in a way that no other leader ever has. He knows how to keep us interested and wanting to “sign up”.
He is cool, attractive, poised and intelligent. Beyonce was interviewed last night after singing “At Last” for the Obama’s opening dance and stated that “he makes me want to be smart”. Could that have been said of George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon or even Bill Clinton?
My only hope is that we are not approaching this opportunity like a good intentioned New Years resolution. Let’s make every effort not to slip back in to familiar patterns and old ways of interpreting our world. We will all need to continue to remind ourselves EVERY day that we have awakened to a new reality and that our years of slumber are over.
Debbie
I enjoyed checking out your new website and blog, Lianne. There’s no doubt that Web 2.0 has transformed the way we communicate personally and professionally. As FDR was the first radio president and JFK the first TV president, Obama is the first Web president and the quintessential example of the power of new media to shape new realities!
This is a great question that bears a lot of thought. On one hand, the tools of social media open up a greater potential for communication and democratic participation that I believe could change culture. In an excellent article in EnlightenNext magazine on the relationship between the web and cultural change, Carter Phipps explains that, “Evolutionary thinkers like to tell us that the spread of information technology is closely linked to the evolution of culture, and some say that we are in the midst of the greatest leap forward in the proliferation of information since Gutenberg started his printing press in the mid-fifteenth century.” If this is true, then the simple proliferation of communication tools via the internet should in and of itself effect change.
On the other hand, these tools also create a perfect environment for the already bloated sense of self infatuation and isolation that pervades postmodern culture. Are we just making it easier to “customize” life to reflect ourselves, rather than reality? Thomas DeZengotita’s book Mediated explains how our current media allows us to be the star of the show and the principle spectator. The perfect situation for a narcissist.
So is there change? I think it is up to us and what we intend to do. We can use these communication tools to create companies like Kiva.org that facilitate one-to-one microlending and have done a world of good. There are also social movements of small and potentially big consequence. President Obama’s whole campaign was definitely an example, but here are two other favorites:
The SHIFT Movie Trailer which is a community generated movie, you could say, and is gaining a lot of momentum.
The YouTube video “The Message” by MadV which effectively communicates the power of video collaboration and the diversity of people reaching for something positive together.
Sincerely,
Christiana Briddell
CMO, ThoughtLead.com
Links:
EnlightenNext Article: http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j36/digital-utopia.asp
The SHIFT Movie: http://www.theshiftmovie.com/%20
The Message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-BzXpOch-E