Questioning my pal social media...

Everyone who knows me knows that I like my social media and the cool gadgets that go along with it! I think some of my friends actually believe I take my phone to bed with me (it’s not true by the way, not yet at least). Twitter, blogs, facebook, linked-in (and the vast selection of others that I cannot keep up with anymore) have been powerful tools to connect with old and new friends as well as to stay current on issues that mean a lot to me. I have been impressed and deeply moved by the intelligent, thoughtful and wise posts and conversations that so many people have taken the time to put out ‘there’ and share with us. I have connected with people in other parts of the world who now feel like ‘friends’.

Tonight however I am in a new domain and am feeling like I have been betrayed by a good friend; my good buddy social media. I am having a hard time understanding how people can post things that they would not say to another in person? I don’t understand this new trend that I am seeing whereby people seem to be intent on ‘catching’ others saying splashy or controversial things (out of context) and then exposing that on social media. Isn’t that something we leave to fox news? Since when do our ‘friends’ behave this way? How does this help us as fellow human beings to improve the world around us and to better understand why we all do the things that we do? How does this help us improve education or effectively change the voice of politics?

Much of this seems to be under the ‘guise’ of transparency.  I am baffled by this. What does this mean? For something to be transparent and "easily seen through" don’t we first need to fully understand that which we are looking at? This takes time and understanding; it takes effort which I fear too many of us seem unwilling to give anymore. 

My husbands eyes will roll as he reads this because he hears it over and over again in our house but I do believe that much of this come back to intent. If we could just pause and ask ourselves, “What is my intent as I write this, blog this, tweet this...”. Would you still be willing to put it out “there”? When my children read what I post can I with confidence and sincerity tell them WHY I decided to do what I did and how it affects others?

The lack of 'real' connectedness on line seems to give people a false sense of entitlement combined with recklessness. Things are said on-line that we know people would never say in person. Can we control this, should we control this? I think that we need to hold each other responsible. We need to remind each other that there is still a person behind the social media and that the people we are 'talking' about on social media are affected by what we say. 

There is much that is positive with social media but I do worry that we have moved too fast without fully considering the ethical consequences of what we do and where we want to go...

"Cheshire Puss [asked Alice] Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to", said the Cat.
"I don't much care where", said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go", said the Cat. 

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass ~~~

The bigger picture

I am noticing a disconcerting trend with media and in particular social media right now. There seems to be a false understanding that if we tweet about something or paste it up on facebook then we are being 'transparent' with information. When we tweet what 'goes on' in a meeting we are, of course, only tweeting particular highlights. Although interesting, these are simply the 'bits n' pieces'  that one person feels worthy of tweeting; we can't possibly understand the full conversation or the context of that meeting from just this.  It is worth reminding ourselves that we are not being provided with the entire story and all of the necessary background information to make an informed decision. Very few people go further and discuss more than the very surface level of the possible threats and opportunities to a given situation or scenario.

It is relatively easy to tear a particular organization or system apart. It is not difficult to criticize spending;  pull apart a budget line by line and then pronounce on some aspect or another 'mis-spending'! The challenge is in having some viable alternatives and in recognizing that most human systems have something that we could learn from and keep.  Once we decide what can and should be kept we can then collectively discuss what needs to be adapted or migrated in to fit within an improved system.

Mainstream media these days is particularly guilty of this minimalist story-telling and too many of us fall for its faux-accuracy. We read something in the paper and believe that it must be fact; that the reporter must have done his/her research and the all-important fact-finding, fact-checking background work. But what if that is not the case? What is the result when a 'piece' is duct-taped together from a few non-contextual quotes, some 'numbers' and a big dollop of bias?

There are very few journalists who provide the full scope of the story. Important facts are left out and pieces of peoples interviews are chopped and made to fit into their slant on the story. So how do we fight this? Recognizing and accepting that it goes on is the first step. We need to be aware of what informs our thinking and then our opinions (I have MUCH work to do here) and ask ourselves if what we are reading, hearing and comprehending, intelligently contributes and expands on the information that we already have. Thinking about our thinking; easier said than done I know but critical if we are to improve the quality of what we ourselves post and of what we read by others.