I recently wrote a post for Recovering Yogi about the modern phenomenon known as praying on Facebook:
when something terrible happens (like the recent horrific bombing of the Boston marathon or the weather in Oklahoma), and our social media feeds get flooded with people posting things like “We’re praying for you, <insert catastrophe shorthand>” and “I’m going to get on my yoga mat and pray.” I questioned the point of social media solidarity at times when action would make a much bigger difference: giving blood, money or time.
After I published the Recovering Yogi essay, a friend sent me a link to an article Malcolm Gladwell wrote for The New Yorker called “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted.” I highly recommend reading Gladwell’s survey of social media’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to social change and activism.
One point of Gladwell’s New Yorker article is that social media can’t ever effect real change because of its “design by committee” nature, sort of like car companies:
Car companies sensibly use a network to organize their hundreds of suppliers, but not to design their cars. No one believes that the articulation of a coherent design philosophy is best handled by a sprawling, leaderless organizational system. Because networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals. They can’t think strategically; they are chronically prone to conflict and error. How do you make difficult choices about tactics or strategy or philosophical direction when everyone has an equal say?
Forgive me quoting Gladwell directly instead of adding my own spin on this, but really, who could say it better than he can?
The point is (who cares), social media is great for sharing ideas, pictures, words and memes, but if you want to make a difference in this world in any regard, sadly, it seems like you still need to get out there and do things. That is bad news for us introverted homebodies.
On the other hand, social media is a great way to lead by example, so perhaps there is still hope for us introverted homebodies to linger on social media a while longer.
