In my previous post, I wrote about the positive side of social networking. Before moving to the Bad and the Ugly, let me first acknowledge what is now being called Iran’s Twitter Revolution. Iran rang down the “Iron Curtain” shortly after the hotly protested election and it’s subsequent demonstrations, riots and violence. They blocked telephone and internet communications and told the press to stay away. Innumerable reports, photos and videos are now being sent worldwide thanks to the unstoppable desire of Iranians for the world to know what is happening there and the technology that makes this possible.
Iran is a highly computer-literate society with a large number of bloggers and hackers The hackers in particular were active in helping keep channels open as the regime blocked them, and they spread the word about functioning proxy portals. Hackers also reportedly took down Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Web site in an act of cyber disobedience.
From the Washington Times
You gotta love a hacker..
Sedef Onder puts it well in her article:
“Simply put, it helped bring truth to power. In a more compelling and impactful way than it’s ever done before.”
This is Social Networking in perhaps it’s most expansive and benevolent applications to date.
Now for the darker side. How exactly does Facebook “do the math” and come to the conclusion that a photo of a woman breastfeeding her baby and showing some nipple needs to be censored, but hate groups, including, but not limited to holocaust denying Jew haters (there are also Muslim, Indian and Black hate groups) are welcome to “socialize” in the global parlor that they host?
There is a debate raging, lately, about whether or not Facebook should block holocaust-denial groups from using its platform. Surprisingly, Facebook, both as a company and as a collection of individual employees with their own opinion, have taken the courageous position that free speech should be respected on Facebook, whether or not they approve of it.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has taken the opposite and equally brave view: holocaust deniers are hateful scum, whose constant subtext is that someone should finish the job of exterminating all the people they consider to be Jewish, and so they should be removed forcibly from Facebook. There’s been a lot of emotion in the responses to his articles, and, to an extent, that’s not really surprising. The topic is sensitive and people hold passionate views on either side.
As a private company, Facebook is not beholdent to any legislation or Constitutional laws on what it deems acceptable on their site. Had they not chosen to censor anyone they could argue that their policy was absolutely no censoring of anything.
Ezra Callahan’s statement below makes no sense, how is hosting a environment for haters “Confronting it head on?”
The first statement came from Ezra Callahan, currently on the PR team, who wrote “You do not combat ignorance by trying to cover up that ignorance exists. You confront it head on. Facebook will do the world no good by trying to become its thought police.”
… To see this kind of hateful content with a Facebook logo sitting right next to it makes me embarrassed to be a member. Apparently, most Facebook employees are far from embarrassed. Those willing to speak out are uniformly in favor of keeping the content.
I also think Mr. Callahan got it wrong, using the word ignorant. This implies some sort of victimhood in which they were deprived of critical information to make better choices, and if they had, it they would. I do not buy that for a moment. Perhaps it will take an exodus of users and advertisers for them to change their position.
Vodafone, Tesco, American Airlines and Domino’s Pizza have pulled advertising. If it goes on much longer individuals who feel strongly will pack up as well.
Social Networking also hosts it’s share of sexual predators, scam artists and people posing as peers when they have an ulterior motive. It is really no different than other “places” people meet in this way and the same precautions apply.
Personal information can get into the hands of those you don’t want it to, including prospective employers. Savvy recruiters and HR folk now have a good “Google” at candidates and are often able to find personal info that makes them a less attractive hire. So maybe it is not a good idea to share things that may compromise you, even though it will give your friends great laugh.
All sorts of unsolicited weirdos can follow you on Twitter. The good news is that it takes only a moment to check out your followers, just a single push of the “block” button removes them from your life, ahh, if it were only that easy with some people in the “real” world!
So, is Social Networking Good, Bad, or Ugly?
Yes!
It is rather like your car. In it you can drive to a concert, a class, the wilderness, pick up and deliver things of value , give someone a ride, get to work, etc. Or, you can become a nuisance by taking up to much space. You can also drive into a crowd, or wrap it around a tree causing great harm to yourself and others.
A couple of months ago, while I was on Twitter, a tweet came up looking for a festive recipe for leg of lamb. I responded with my favorite lamb recipe, the tweeter loved it and decided to serve it for Easter Dinner. Wow! Think about that for a moment. It is one thing to chose a recipe from a cookbook (we assume it’s writer is somehow bona fide and has “kitchen cred”), but I was a total stranger, unknown commodity. Perhaps she is a good enough cook to know that those ingredients went well with the lamb and how to make adjustments if needed. Still I felt warm and fuzzy that she chose my recipe for a special occasion like that.
I was hanging out on Twitter in the same “Foodie sphere”where she hangs out. We tend to give people advance credit from the “Bank of Goodwill”, when they have certain things, interests, passions in common.
There is a woman who Tweets recipes in 140 character Tweets, and they are good! @cookbook. Very inventive. It’s like culinary Haiku.
More and more people are meeting and marrying those they met in online dating services.
According to the survey of more than 10,000 people who married in the U.S. during an 18-month period from 2006 to 2007, 19% met online, compared with 17% who met at work and 17% who met through friends.
I know of business introductions and contacts made on Twitter, and the like between people who have never met, but based on their commonality of interest and positive feelings, that stem from the “content” of their Tweets and exchanges, they are willing to go to bat for. This, of course is not unique to Twitterverse. In fact, it is exactly how it happens in “normal” (i.e. non Internet) informal social interactions. However it usually takes a little longer to identify what we have in common there.
It reminds me of experiences I have had while traveling (cruising, as it is called, amongst us cruisers) via our sailboat, Felicia777 from San Francisco to Cartagena, Columbia. We had just anchored in Coco Banderas,
a magical, reef protected, 2 Island anchorage. There was only one other boat there. This was unusual as it is a very popular anchorage. We did the usual thing, which is to hop in the dinghy (small inflatable used to go ashore, diving etc.) to “sniff around”.
We recognized the other boat’s name as we had heard it on the radio, sometimes conducting the “net” which is an appointed time and frequency on the SSB radio, for those sailors, travelling in the general area to connect and share information. Most often it is howdeedoos, weather, buy/sell etc. We had also heard about them from friends or ours, we went over to say hi,
Now there is subtle, unspoken etiquette that you learn as you go. There is the wave that says, “Hey there!” If they do not move other than that, it is understood that they are just politely saying Hi, and you keep moving. More common is the wave accompanied by them walking over to the side of the boat and reaching, to take your line to yap, and find out who you are, where you have been, and on and on. This often winds up in “Happy Hour” on one of your boats, as it did in this case.
This was the day before Passover, and they were great company so, what the hey? They joined us the next night for Seder and we all had a fantastic time. This was a perfect storm of social networking in that as fellow Cruisers, we are already “in the same boat” so to speak. We also knew some of the same people and fancied the same anchorage. Then there was dinner the next night at their boat. Walks and laundry done by the water well on the island the next day. We realized we had spent, in our 4 days at Coco Banderas, more time with these people we just met, than with any of our land friends of decades, in a year back in the “real world”.
Maybe we need new friends!
I have seen cruisers go to enormous lengths to help each other out, be they friend or total stranger. The combination of a badly written instruction manual and my Husband’s sometimes heavy hand resulted in a boat mishap (to put it mildly). Word got around the anchorage (same anchorage, different visit) and another John came to help. He left 8 hours later, streaked with oil and sweat but it was fixed. Wow! Who DOES that?
That is the bright side of social networking. There is a darker side to it also. But I am feeling too warm and fuzzy from recalling all this to go there right now. That will me my next post.
Here is my Zen thought on Social Networking. It works so well online because, our hashtags, blogs, groups and pages it make our commonalities easily visible. What would happen if we tried more often, in the “real world”, to look for and see/find commonalities/network connections where we normally wouldn’t?
I am not saying have coffee with a Jihadi or ignore obvious signs. But that we would do well to expand the concept. Being a snarky New Yorker this will be a challenge for me but I am making it my homework for one week.
Any predictions on what conclusions I may arrive to?
“We are all a little full of sh*t”. This is one of my favorite quotes from brilliant (and sadly deceased) comedian, Richard Jeni’s hilarious DVD “A Big Steaming Pile of me”
This is especially true of most of our routine behavior in the marketplace. We often do not put our money where our mouth is. This is more due to lack of awareness than blatant insincerity. Or so I like to think.
How many folks sporting “Free Tibet” bumper stickers do you suppose are wearing sneakers made in China?
This week, I came across a couple of things that underlined this.
We often talk about consumer reviews in this blog and while I was unofficially polling a friend on his use of them, his response was… “Naa, I don’t have the time and I have an Amazon Prime account, so both the initial and return shipping are free”.
This, from an organic and sustainable buying, energy conserving, home schooling, garbage composting, natural fiber wearing, green loving, normally very thoughtful and conscious guy.
What did he miss?
Well, first off the carbon footprint of the returned item just grew to a Shaquille O’Neal shoe size, 23! The returned product will usually first, go back to the retailer, and then be returned to the manufacturer for credit. Then it may be disposed of. So, “free", as in free shipping and return shipping, just means someone else pays for it – ultimately the price is inflated for everyone.
That is just for starters but then came this guy’s review
Good while it lasted, May 24, 2008
By
St. …
(Saint Augustine, FL) – See all my reviews
It was good while it lasted. I used it about twice a day for almost six months. I figure all in all I got 300-350 espressos out of it before the pump pretty much quit. It still makes a lot of noise and sputters a bit but just can’t create the pressure any longer. So is it worth it? Actually I am still giving it three stars. I figure mine lasted for a shorter period than most but even if most last for about a year, for $100-$120 (free shipping with Prime) that comes out to about 30 cents per shot each morning. At $2.00 per Espresso con Panna at the local Starbucks it paid for itself in a month. So within 6 months I do think it is a bit disposable but still worth it…just consider I am not alone.
And no, I did not consider sending back. It is made in China and no local repair firm. I opened it and see no way to replace the pump myself. The thing weighs about 20# so shipping back when shipping a new one was free with Prime is just not worth it. So go ahead but buyer beware
He is not alone in seeing appliances, electronics and other purchases as disposable. The consequences of this are grave in a number of ways. There is trickle down of toxic waste, that is often disposed of in ways that are poisonous to the environment. The general concept of that there is value in “quality” is degraded. This is more disturbing than you may think at first glance. Manufacturers are companies, which employ people. When they work everyday to put out crap that is just good enough to get purchased, because it is cheap, but is of low quality, this degrades society. There is “psychic carryover” from this and it seeps into their, and our lives more than we would like to think.
If manufacturers were made to be responsible for the disposal of their failed products, it would behoove them to make higher quality, longer lasting ones as oppose to shifting the cost of maintaining landfills to the society.
Some companies are leading the way in terms of taking initiative on recycling and disposal:
“Our electronics are the fastest-growing portion of our landfills. Here’s more about reducing their pollution.
As the pressure from consumers to be kind to the environment builds and businesses focus on creating more sustainable practices continues, many companies are spending more energy announcing or advertising their recycling programs. The electronics industry in particular has been getting a lot of press both positive and negative about its environmental impact.”
“How are companies tackling the e-waste problem? PC maker, Hewlett-Packard has an ambitious goal to recycle two billion pounds of e-waste by 2010.”
However we are not only consumers, we are also citizens and parents, so perhaps we should also take responsibility for our decisions. Many of us have had hard choices to make, when the product we really want is beyond our budget. We need to consider the long term costs of our choices, to both society and ourselves. Many times the more expensive product that lasts and does not wind up in the landfill is, in the end a better bargain for us and our planet.
A possible silver lining to the cloud that is the economic crisis, which has left few untouched, is that we are forced to stretch our resources and think a little longer before we part with out cash.
The economic crisis has caused a seismic shift in attitude. Consumers are now entering what the company calls the “age of emotional proximity”, where peer recommendations surpass all other marketing.
Trust in the voice of authority is fading as consumers increasingly put their faith in each other. Messages from businesses, politicians and tabloid newspapers are being listened to with skepticism.
There has never been a better time to make full use of the many sources of peer reviews and share your own experiences to help inform others. Be somebody – be a peer!
In my previous post, I wrote about the positive side of social networking. Before moving to the Bad and the Ugly, let me first acknowledge what is now being called Iran’s Twitter Revolution. Iran rang down the “Iron Curtain” shortly after the hotly protested election and it’s subsequent demonstrations, riots and violence. They blocked telephone and internet communications and told the press to stay away. Innumerable reports, photos and videos are now being sent worldwide thanks to the unstoppable desire of Iranians for the world to know what is happening there and the technology that makes this possible. 
A blog about experiences, curiosity and the never-ending search for ways to do better things better