Social media and starlings

When the term "social media" is brought up, does it invoke a positive or a negative image in your mind?  The information provided and researched this week in class has broadened my awareness of social media and its capabilities.  It offers much more than communicating with friends from long ago and distant family members.  It transcends far beyond petty, narcissistic comments on Facebook.  Social media opens up a plethora of global possibilities that we can implement to "collaborate a global consciousness and attack some big problems" (Don Tapscott).  

During the Tunisian Revolution, snipers were killing unarmed students in the streets.  Do you know what these kids began doing?  They would hold their cell phone in the air to take a picture of the snipers, use triangulation, and send the pictures immediately to friendly military allies who came in and killed the vicious snipers.  Another example is when Syrians would use Twitter to communicate and form a community that offered make-shift hospitals to actually treat the wounded instead of calling for an ambulance that took them to a hospital and executed them.  During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, citizens became journalists and tweeted events as they were happening and effectuated an incredible coordinated global response.  Because of this, it was revealed that the reason so many school buildings collapsed was because corrupt officials had taken bribes to allow those buildings to be built to less than code.  Because of the "one child policy" in China, many lost their only child.  This is the perfect example of where a lack of transparency had devastating effects and citizen journalists were able to use social media to hold the government accountable.  In illustrating social media and everything we put into it, Don Tapscott also states, "Humanity is building a machine that enables us to collaborate in new ways.  Openness denotes opportunity and possibilities.  It is about collaboration, transparency (values and integrity build trust), sharing and embracing different talents and knowledge pools (commons), and empowerment.  Decentralization of power leads to freedom and collaboration".  There are so many negative forces inherent in social media.  However, there are also many positive possibilities where we can truly make a difference in the world and help the under-developed countries.


A fun example is when Reddit partnered (in a very loose sense of the word) with Greenpeace to name the whale that symbolized their fight against the Japanese government killing whales.  Reddit developed a Facebook page for the name "Mister Splashy Pants".  Greenpeace did not find it humorous, so Reddit changed the logo to a fighting whale and ended up with 73% of the vote and created so much awareness that the Japanese government called off their whaling mission.  Alexis Ohanian with Reddit said, "if you want to succeed you have to be willing to lose control like Greenpeace did."

The goal for global collaboration is for everyone to be connected to each other and convene their supporters, not control them.  This will effectuate positive global solutions when implemented with integrity.  I assumed that all of the new media is facilitating us to communicate globally.  This, in fact, is not the case.  We tend to gravitate toward domestic news on a large scale.  Ethan Zuckerman is involved in the group Global Voices.  They travel the world with the goal of getting us out of our filter bubbles and getting us interested in other "flocks" and truly conversing globally.  If we look at the image to the left, the reason parts of the world are dark is because they literally have no electricity and therefore receive little to no attention.  A school club in Madagascar that was learning to use computers and the Internet began implementing their new-found knowledge to communicate to the world the violence their country was experiencing.  An organization with a massive volunteer community translating English to Chinese so they can follow international news is Yeeyan.org.  Another goal of Global Voices is to routinize translation so global learning and global conversation can effect global solutions.  They facilitate bridge figures such as Erik Hersman (called the "white African") who works with African and American technology communities.  Dhani Jones is a professional athlete that spends his spare time training with various local sports teams around the world such as rugby and fox hunting in England, playing jai alai in Spain, dragon boat racing in Singapore, muay Thai kick boxing in Thailand, schwingen in Switzerland, sailing in New Zealand, surf life saving in Australia, boxing in Cambodia, and sambo in Russia.  He is able to study each culture and use sport as the "language that allows him to encounter the full width and wonder of each part of the world".  We can each take part in some way whether our language is missions, music, food, art, literature, medicine, etc. 

A company having a social mission is imperative to its overall organizational culture.  In 2013 Microsoft introduced its 4Afrika Initiative to "engage in Africa's economic development to improve its global competitiveness" as explained by Todd Wasserman.  This is extremely exciting considering Microsoft's financial resources and its 10,000 partners across Africa.  If we look at the above image of the world, Africa is mostly dark.  Microsoft is bringing light to Africa.  There are dark parts in the United States, as well, and this is a great starting point for us to lead our children and grandchildren into a global consciousness.  Most of them are more knowledgeable about social media than we are!  Johanna Blakley says, "If you want to understand the global village, find out what they are passionate about".  Don Tapscott implores "maybe this could be an age for our kids of promise fulfilled and of peril unrequited".  Now that's motivating!

Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY) is a beautiful video of murmurations of starlings.  You will notice that there is tremendous communication and leadership, but no one particular leader.  It is a collaboration that works beautifully together, including deflecting a predator.  "Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we need a lot of sunlight in this troubled world" (Don Tapscott).  Social media has definitely had its negative effects.  However, we can see many ways it can improve our global impact and each one of us individually if we choose to be on the right team!  Let me know other examples you know of social media benefiting various people groups or individuals and ideas you may have to help foster global awareness through social media.