It's easy and probably fun to wax poetic about the role social media might play in important world events like the recent political unrest in Tunisia and Egypt. Twitter, Facebook, and Google facilitated first-ever sorts of participation that prompted mass public protests, right?
I say they would have happened anyway. Protests aren't a new idea, and people talking to one another about political injustice has yielded organized action many times throughout history (America, France, Russia, China...they all had revolutions, so the behaviors are consistent even as the enabling technologies change).
These world events don't tell us anything about the participation made possiblevia social media technology, per se, other than that there's an active, vocal lobby looking to make a point where there's no point to be made.
They should ponder Chicago's precipitation instead.
We had a snowstorm here approximately the same time that folks were gathering in Tahrir Square and chasing journalists. It was a doozie that paralyzed the city for a day or two, and it could have been a showcase for the latest social technologies. Think about it: In the past, when natural disasters hit, all of the networks and links that define and enable civilization get blasted. Earthquakes, floods, you name the crisis and the hardest and most dangerous aspect of these events is that they isolate everyone from everyone else. You're on your own in a disaster.
Social technology has the chance to change that dynamic and connect people in their hours of need. The content of such connections might not make for compelling voyeurism and the connecting offer few friending opportunities, but just imagine the true impact it could have made in Chicago:
- Safety -- Many people had to abandon their cars because of the snow (drifts and/or zero visibility). What if they could have Tweeted their positions and been rescued? How about sending drivers warnings to get off of certain roads before conditions deteriorated? Think of all the rescue options
- Convenience -- Social media could have updated residents on when their roads would be cleared, or help them route travel along clean roads. Community sites could have shared information on carpools, etc.
- Commerce -- Guess how many Chicagoland restaurants used social media to tell their patrons that they were either open or closed, or to tell employees to show up or not? I can't name one
- Community -- Could city blocks (or apartment buildings) established emergency communities that would look out for one another in crises like this? Neighbor making sure neighbor is accounted for and able to care for themselves
- Security -- If there was a risk that homes or businesses could be robbed during the shutdown in civil services, where was the citizen’s response network that would let you shoot a pic of a robbery with your smartphone and get help?
Imagine millions of Chicagoans organized into communities via social tools and thus empowered to function as an integrated, mutually-supporting single organism in response to the storm. Now that would have been an amazing example of the power and importance of social media.
Too bad we were all too busy watching what was, or wasn't, happening in the Middle East.
(Image credit: The Outer Drive)
