There is a fascinating post on the Ted Blog where they have a Q & A with Clay Shirky regarding Twitter, Social Media, and the Iran situation. Clay Shirky is an NYU professor and wrote one of my favorite books that I highly recommend reading, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.
When asked what he makes of the Iran situation right now, Clay responds:
“I’m always a little reticent to draw lessons from things still unfolding, but it seems pretty clear that … this is it. The big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Chicago demonstrations of 1968 where they chanted “the whole world is watching.” Really, that wasn’t true then. But this time it’s true … and people throughout the world are not only listening but responding. They’re engaging with individual participants, they’re passing on their messages to their friends, and they’re even providing detailed instructions to enable web proxies allowing Internet access that the authorities can’t immediately censor. That kind of participation is really extraordinary.”
Sometimes, as we get caught up in our own little spheres of influence and needs, it’s difficult to see the big picture. I personally spend time connecting with friends, marketing my business, etc. through social media outlets. However, it’s easy to forget how fundamentally services such as Twitter and Facebook are changing the way we interact and communicate with the world and each other.
I think this most recent event shows how much the power of communication has shifted from a few to many. Distribution of the information was more easily controlled in the past…but today, with the help of social media, controlling that information is much more difficult. I think, as with everything, this can have very beneficial effects as well as extremely negative ones.
What are your thoughts?
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