There is this fascinating book called The Big Sort by Bill Bishop, who takes a look at how the clustering together of like-minded individuals is homogenizing America. Sandy Marsh wrote an excellent post on ThreeMinds about the dangers of homogenization in our culture, where in her frustration she cried out:
"It makes me want to sew my own clothes and burn the patterns. Create my own desserts and wash them down with a glass of milk and the recipes. Develop my own language and only share the decoder ring with my closest friends and family. Start traditions and keep secrets."
So here is my question of the day... Is the same destined to be true for social media as it has been for the real-world? Are we destined for a big online sort?
I don't have an answer. On one hand I want to embrace the niche as a way to find relevance in the noise. On the other hand, I don't want to isolate myself in a homogenized world of wine snobs and social media junkies, never to discover that my true passion might be for football (yikes!).
I don't have an answer, but here is some food for thought. It seems in fashion these days to be divisive. As one person writes a blog post exclaiming Twitter is going to save the world, another declares Twitter is dead.
We work in black and whites, pulling towards biased news outlets and online groups that support our opinions. At any given moment, you can find your PRO this and ANTI this groups on Facebook waging war. But where is the Facebook group for "I can see both sides of the story" or "Let's find common ground"?
And what will this homogenization mean for marketers, who are just starting to hop onto the social media train? With their enthusiasts in one corner and their haters in another, they are bound to get a very biased viewpoint depending on which conversation they join. Which is a shame, because the real magic happens when those conversations come together.
Marta Strickland
Strategists & Planners
Comments (8)
I have seriously worried about this myself, and no matter how "independent" I believe my news sources are, I am not confident I am getting both sides of the story.
How do we battle this?
I think by simply doing what we fail to do in our non-virtual life as well - challenge our assumptions, prejudices, biases and filters everyday. The only way to truly get out of the "I'm right and the rest of you suck" mantra while we stay safe in our usual forums, blogs and chat rooms, is by communicating with those you typically disagree with. And by chatting with the "opposing team", this should not be limited to your virtual world, but instead take place in every aspect of your life. And although this idea shouldn't be rocket science to most, I think it is a challenging task for the best of us, and a worthwhile goal for the new year ;-) Well, at least for me.
Thanks for a great post!
Posted on December 9, 2008 09:48
Every generation, or even at a sub-generation time frame, goes through a bit of hand wringing over the ills of the latest new big thing. Look at Nick Carr. He's going from wondering in The Atlantic whether Google is making us stupid to a full blown book: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/12/into_the_shallo.php
On a different note, it seems odd that Organic hasn't opted for reCAPTCHA: (recaptcha.net)
Finally, this is no exceptional experience:
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Posted on December 10, 2008 04:29
Ditto on your post, Gabriella. I regularly make an effort to engage information from all sides, which can be difficult in a biased world. I witness so many people becoming more and more 'sided', dismissing the opinions and view of others simply because they are not a part of their 'crew'. It's disappointing, but fixable...perhaps I need to start that "I can see both sides of the story" group today!
Posted on December 10, 2008 07:55
great post. i don't know either.
Posted on December 10, 2008 13:14
I love that this post is provocative but SHORT. Might seem like a strange point to make, but it's harder to fit diverse views into your media diet when reading a blog post is a colossal commitment.
I keep thinking about a comment Joe Biden made in one of the debates - that he learned early on in his Senate career to question people's judgment, but not their motives. We get into trouble when we assume people with opposing political views, for example, must be morally compromised idiots. It's hard for me to keep an open mind when talking to a Bush supporter (especially someone who voted for him in 04), but, I think it's my responsibility as a mature participant in democracy to try to listen to them and understand where they're coming from on, instead of just writing them off.
Posted on December 11, 2008 07:47
Thanks for all your feedback guys. I think these are good words to live by, a good 2009 resolution. Challenge your ideas and don't float too much into the niche that you lose a valuable point of view.
Abernathy, we are working to fix the comment problems.
Amanda, it's hard for me to stay SHORT, maybe I should make that a 2009 resolution too!! :)
Posted on December 11, 2008 08:14
A great post, very refreshing to see someone else thinking this way. But sometimes I wonder just the opposite - with all the information out there how do we find where we really "fit in" ?
Posted on December 15, 2008 03:37
Thank you for including my blog post "How Twitter Can Save The World" as part of your discussion. The title was more of a tongue in cheek reference to how I saved one person's day on Twitter by directing them to a bicycle shop close by when they had a flat tire.
This was a great post, I do see social media homogenization as being a problem however I also see occurrences where people have engaged in great debates on Twitter about the pros & cons particularly during the election. I had some great conversations with people supporting both candidates and also multiple questions on different state ballots. I try to remain objective and would share some of the well made online propoganda videos created by supporters of both the candidates. I find it fascinating & love a good debate.
However, the majority of online users of social media don't view it as a way to see both sides of the coin & tend to gravitate toward that which they are comfortable with. Some even use their relative anonymity to make crude & uneducated attacks against those who hold different viewpoints than they do.
I hope there comes a day when social media starts gaining mass adoption and there are more avenues for engaging quality conversation. I think this blog post was a great start to that!
Posted on December 22, 2008 09:52