Why Society and Social Media Go Together

Social Media

This technology is transforming not just the way people act, but the way we interact. And not just on an individual level, but on a greater level. As an organization. As a community. As a civilized society.

But what is transforming?

Too often we hear buzzwords like “trends,” “transformation” and “change.” But the fact that a technology changes society is not what matters. How it changes society, is what people should care about. Which means it’s what writers should care about too. A plethora of media mediums have impregnated themselves into society long before the Internet was birthed. Newspaper publishing. Radio. Television. Not only that, but these mediums were very successful—and to some extent, still are.

But the Internet has done something far more important.

The web, social media most of all, has brought people together as a society. And in the rest of this blog, I will outline how.

According to Ravit Lichtenberg from Ustrategy.com, “Social Media Will Become a Single, Cohesive Experience Embedded In Our Activities and Technologies.” Dan Gillmor, in We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People, writes in the book’s Introduction (page XIII), that, “Tomorrow’s news reporting and production will be more of a conversation, or a seminar…The communication network itself will be a medium for everyone’s voice, not just the few….”

What this means is that, thanks to the Internet, more and more people are able to come together and participate, no matter what the topic or interest at hand. The fact that Gillmor uses the word “conversation” alone portrays the view that the Internet has brought people together.

There is ample evidence to show that specific types of social media technologies have brought society closer, such as SMS text messaging and P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing on the Internet. According to Gillmore, P2P can also be used to bring societies together in response to—and in defense of—repressive governments. So says Gillmore in his book:

New P2P systems under development will provide the closest thing to anonymity that we’ve seen so far. Repressive governments want to keep Internet content under control, but anonymity will make censorship more difficult. (Chapter two, pages 37-38)

Lisa Hoover, in a ComputerWorld article entitled “How Social Networking Has Changed Society”, talks about how social media expands the opportunities for people to meet and collaborate. She writes, “Social networking services expand the pool of people we have the opportunity to meet to near limitless possibilities. We’re no longer restricted to or rely on people in our neighborhood, church, or workplace to provide the interaction we desire.” Brett Green, a blogger for the Huffington Post, wrote about theBoulder Fire on Labor Day 2010 and how helpful social media technologies like Twitter were during the disaster. “Tech-savvy” residents, he writes, took to Twitter to share information about the fire, from where to get food to evacuation advice.

Even older generations, people who did not grow up with social media usage as the norm, are beginning to pick up on the technology. According to a recent PCWorld blog, “A new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project says the number of social networking users ages 50 and older nearly doubled in the past year, continuing a trend of strong growth that was first spotted during the summer of 2009.” According to that blog, the primary reason older generations have turned to social media is because, “ social networks can be a way to stay in touch or get support.”

Now we can stop. Take a step back. Look at what we’ve found. This author has small doubt that readers will see that the Internet and social media has brought us closer together as a society. Everyone has a voice.

And everyone can share their voices. Together.

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