New Media – Is it Creating Social Transformation

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 The 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 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, An Inconvenient Truth
  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.