Who's Right and Who's Left

 

Aside from just talking to our friends and networks,  we’ve seen social media platforms used for good across the planet. From North and Central Africa to Christchurch and Haiti, these platforms have proven their worth in rescuing people from the most isolated and dangerous of situations.

 

We've also seen them used with malintent  – where peaceful protests avenging a young man’s death by police action in the UK snowballed into en masse rioting, vandalism, looting and even organised crime – organised via social media and instant messaging applications.

 

If the recent UK riots have shown anything, it’s that as a human race we’re more than capable of doing harm with the tools we have available to us.  Social media enable connectivity to our greater community but it’s how we choose to use that connectivity that makes the difference.

 

It's quite sobering to contrast this destructive behaviour with what happened in Tahrir Square – where people were prepared to die for that basic right to speak freely.

 

While we’ve seen that social media have the power to save, they’ve also the capacity to hurt. Noting that several people were killed and many injured during the UK riots. Used in the wrong way, they facilitate our capacity to hurt.

 

We condemned the shutdown of such communication networks in North Africa and the Middle East where freedom of speech provided a viable means of displaying some political freedom.

 

In the West, few can say they are without freedom of speech.  It’s also taken very seriously when it’s in any way threatened. Hence the large outcry, when authorities in the UK began questioning whether these networks were more putting communities at risk than keeping us connected to our friends.

 

The idea that the British government might have engaged in shutting down social media may have been a catchy story tabloids clung to dearly but the reality is actually more constructive. While it may have come up in discussion, social networks and particularly instant-messaging application companies are now being asked whether they can provide some form of helpful intelligence that could better protect communities when events like these take place.

 

While I wouldn’t condone any clampdown on a person’s rights to freedom of speech – when events like the UK riots take place, I’m embarrassed that we can’t exercise even basic restraint to protect ourselves from ourselves.

 

At the same level that these networks were being used for harm, there’s also a great deal of vigilance (note, not vigilantism) we as citizens of our own communities can also exercise.  

 

When events like the UK riots do happen, rather than responding with excessive force, responding strategically akin to a neighbourhood watch of ourselves may be a better option. This I suggest by encouraing creating an in-group/out-group scenario on social media where a network does not allow and/or even self corrects behavioural anomalies by rogue individuals who exhibit unhelpful tendencies.

 

Obviously a lot more people took part in this conversation than the rioters themselves, with more than 2,5 million tweets circulated around the globe purely as a result of the riots. Furthermore, most of this community immediately began communicating what was happening to their networks and either condemning the violence or expressing sympathy and support for those affected by it.

 

We’re starting to see examples of communities self-correcting with brands too. If a consumer unfairly talks about a brand unfavourably – there are increasing instances of another consumer stepping in and saying, “Hey, that’s not helpful.”

 

 

The psychology behind that is that if my immediate community frowns upon me for doing something, I’m less likely to commit that act for fear of social persecution and shame. 

 

Regardless of where we come from, we all come from the same stock and that mettle that allows communities to persevere against tyranny – whichever form that may be – exists within all of us. 

 

These networks are powerful –  but not nearly as powerful as we are when we use them. They’ll allow us to self-correct if we use them in that way – but it needs to come from ourselves.

 

We’re a global community of billions and going forward, given that we are starting to find our voices, we are the masters of that destiny and either we’ll be the one’s who are right, or some of the one’s who are left.