Social Media - What In the World is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 "refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies." (Wikipedia, Web 2.0)

The term implies a "new and improved" version of the web and that case could be argued based on all the new functionality we think of when we refer to Web 2.0. CoolTown Studios describes it best on one of its social networking sites by saying, "... Web 1.0 was commerce. Web 2.0 is people." Aside from the immediate association conjured in my head to a Charleton Heston scene in Soylent Green (1973), I think CoolTown Studios has summed it up nicely in a nutshell. Web 2.0 may be more about people connecting to each other than it is about selling products to people. According to research cited by the Pew Internet and American Family Life Project, at least 75% of young adults between the age of 18 and 24 have a profile on a social networking site and 80% of GenX'ers buy products online. Even the older demographic of adults 65 and older use the internet regularly to communicate by email. But in this vast, ever-expanding list of technologies, where does the consumer start, and more importantly, what is the intended benefit? That question is as complex and varied as all the different platforms from which to choose and is based on individual consumer objectives (do I want to make friends, or just influence people?). For example, if a person wants to get alternative, real-time news feeds, they may be interested in Digg, Newsvines, or one of the other newszines where users upload and share news with other members of the network. Users, not media outlets, rate and rank the news stories they read to generate interest. This interaction between users who share a common objective is one of the driving principals behind social media: the evolution of the web to allow consumers to publish as well as consume media.

Albert Bandura's social learning theory of reciprocal determinism seems to best describe consumer behavior in this interactive environment (Bandura, 1986). There is an unquestionable reciprocal relationship between the consumer and social media, as consumer perspectives may be directly impacted by what they read, see and hear and the consumer may in turn share those perspectives with others. Morley Winograd and Michael Hais, co-authors of Millenial Makeover, discuss this effect in describing how the millenial generation, those born between 1982 and 2003, exchange information in social networks. Bandura investigates the impact of media on social learning theories of behavior in his more recent work, Media effects: Advances in theory and research (Bandura, 2001). Bandura believes that the mass media, particularly television, continues to play the most prominent role in influencing public opinion because it provides "the best access to the public through its strong drawing power. For this reason, television is increasingly used as the principle vehicle of justification" for opinions and beliefs. I wholeheartedly agree with Bandura's assessment that "research on the role of the mass media in the social construction of reality carries important social implications". This is easily demonstrated when you consider shows like "JackAss" and its imitative power to influence others to model and mimic the absurb and often dangerously risky stunts performed in the show.

Aside from the implications of group modeling behavior, what hierarchies exists within the groups when behaviors are being adapted? Clay Shirky describes this process in his discussion on group formation and group hierarchies. Shirky believes the essential elements of group behavior form a "ladder", in which group members communicate, share, and collaborate before engaging in collective action (Shirky, 2008). So, if our behaviors are influenced by the way we interact with each other, how might this influence the way we learn and acquire information?

William Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, comments on learning technologies and connective writing in Understanding Instructional Technologies. Richardson believes that "old taxonomies and the way we organized learning will not work in the digital world" (Richardson, "The Read/Write Web"). Richardson observed that as we moved from the read to read/write web and begin to publish what we write, we can reach a much broader audience. "We really are doing real work... putting out ideas out there" to connect to others. Writing is not simply text anymore.. it's multimedia (Richardson, "The Future of Education is in a Web-Based World"). Richardson notes that change is slow in the education system. However, Richardson does cite examples of schools that have embraced and "absorbed" new technologies, such as a virtual high school in Florida. This is an example of promising shifts in pedagogy that will make learning more collaborative. Nonetheless, Richardson comments that in spite of these signs of progress, "we are still in textbook mode, and that's not really the way the world works these days." The education system may be slow to adapt to changes in technology, but GenX'ers and millenials have already fully embraced the digital world.

Winograd and Hais believe millenials are the most ethnically diverse generation, with 4 in 10 of non-european origin, and 20% have at least one immigrant parent. According to Winograd and Hais, millenials are the generation with the least amount of gender differentiation in how they vote, their ideals, beliefs, and education. MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube seem to be helping millenials come together, form a consensus and organize groups (Winograd). The millenial generation is using social media such as blogs, wikis, and networks for news and information rather than television and more importantly, communicating online with each other to get information (Hais). The success of the Obama campaign was largely influenced by social networking strategies in media like MySpace and Facebook, which promoted self-organizing infused with positive messages of unification and hope. This appeared to be particularly appealing to millenials who connect through social media.

Winograd predicted correctly that the forces of technological change embraced by the millenial generation would bring about significant change, and ultimately in this case, political change that promises to improve optimism and diminish divisions within American society. Interesting to note is that Winograd and Hais believe generational ideals and belief systems will not change as millenials get older, a point they discussed in the following interview. Hais also notes that partisan allegiances normally form in early adulthood, but that should not be confused with "party loyalty" (in other words, millenials may not define themselves as democrat or republican while they may endorse and embrace specific ideals):



Clay Shirky, author of "Here Comes Everybody", and adjunct professor of graduate interactive telecommunications at New York University, made an astute observation in his presentation at a Web 2.0 expo conference. Shirky noted that, "media that targets you but does not include you may not be worth sitting still for." In other words, media needs to be inclusive and interactive if it intends to keep its captive audience.

References:

CoolTown Studios, "Web 2.0, and Why Your City Needs It To Attract The Creative Class"

"Soylent Green is PEOPLE", Soylent Green (1973) , IMdb database,

Pew Internet and American Family Life Project, "Generations On Line in 2009", January 2009

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of mass communications. In J. Bryant, & D. Zillman (Eds.). Media effects: Advances in theory and research (2nd ed., 121-153). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

William Richardson, "Understanding Instructive Technologies"

Clay Shirky, "Here Comes Everyone", 2008

Morley Winograd, Michael Hais "Millenial Makeover", 2008

"Plugged In" - Resistence is Futile

"The Borg have a singular goal, namely the consumption of technology, rather than wealth or political expansion as most species seek." (Star Trek Archives, CBS Paramount Television, CBS Studios 2006)

It's 6 a.m., and the alarm clock glares with digital indifference to the pulsating signal of the start of your day. Somewhere between sleep and awakeness you head toward the shower when you suddenly remember, "I'm on call this week.. better take the cell phone.... just in case I get a call". Now aside from the sheer ridiculousness of this notion.. that your cell phone is suddenly waterproof and you could actually answer it while sudsing in the showering, it illustrates an even more ridiculous point.. namely, just how much technology actually controls our lives. The irony of it is this same technology was supposed to free us from the mundane and the ordinary, adding effortless convenience to our everyday lives. But at what cost? Are we truly consumers of technology, or has technology begun to consume us?

As I ask myself this question, I begin to think of HAL 9000, the AI computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). HAL, the all-seeing artificial intelligence created to help and guide the crew of Discovery, soon decided to take over the ship and terminate the humans onboard to continue the prime directive. It's interesting to note that the later of the Space Odyssey film series assimilate HAL and Bowman (his nemesis) into one being, coveying the message that man and machine, humans and the technology they create, are destined to become one (as HAL and Bowman merged to form Halman in the last film 3001: The Final Odyssey, 1997). HAL and Bowman became the first borg. But to some degree, we are all becoming like the borg, with our blue tooths and blackberrys and iPods, happly texting, tweeting, and mp3-ing to confirm our existence in a wired world. Escape from boredom is only a 3G away (downloads at blazing speeds for instant gratification).

Anthony Doerr reflects on our compulsion to stay connected to the grid in "Am I Still Here?", an article he wrote for Orion Magazine in 2007. Doerr uses vivid, delightful imagery to describe his struggle to find balance between the virtual world and his other real world responsibilities. That line is often blurred when we must connect to the wired world to meet obligations, which Doerr says leads to a rationalization process for sacrificing time away from family and significant others for online time (Doerr, 2007). Inspite of the fact that we seem to be losing more and more private time as we crowd in more and more technology in our lives, our dependence on our cell phones and pda devices seem to be growing rather than diminishing. Doerr develops an alter ego whom he calls "Z" in his article to explain the internal struggle he faces in his quest for balance. "Z", the pale and puny voice in his head that kept telling him to check his email, read a blog, or surf the net instead of engaging in other real-world activities is a very good illustration of the dilemma and the question.. are we replacing social interaction and meaningful relationships with the internet, cell phones, and online activities?

So what exactly is driving our thirst for technology and our compulsion to stay connected? In Neil Swidey's Boston Globe article, The End of Alone, Dalton Conley's observation that our obsession to stay connected may be driven by a fear that we will miss out on something may be quite true, and it may be as simple as that. Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and author of Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got From the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety, believes that the act of staying connected and wired is actually creating this anxiety (Conley, 2009). Conley concludes that, "it's very hard for people to unplug and be alone -- and be with the one data stream of their mind." (Conley, 2009) Images of Stephen King's The Lawnmover Man (1992) come to mind as I reflect on Conley's observation. Job, the mildy-retarded man in the movie, is turned into a maniacal genius with CIA-sought-after powers when a brilliant scientist (Pierce Brosnan) "wires" him into a virtual reality simulator that remaps his brain. The end result was that he went from being a simple, mildly-retarded man whose main preoccupations and pleasure in life was attending mass and cutting grass to a mega-brained genius with telekenetic powers who could hear other people's thoughts and kill people with his brain. Job soon became addicted to the virtual reality experience and no longer wanted to (and for that matter no longer could) live in the real world. A striking comparison to ponder. Is Job a metaphor for what we are becoming in the wired world?



Swidey's article also included some intriguing references to research done by Milgram on the "seven degrees of separation" and Granovetter's The Strength of Weak Ties, explaining our connectedness to people we don't know that well. So, the familiar is being replaced by the unfamiliar through our online experiences, as we start to exchange information sometimes therapeutically with people in the wired world that we really don't know at all. In some cases, anonymity may be a good thing when something personal is being exchanged, but caution should always moderate self-disclosure with unknown individuals (being connected does not mean ignoring common sense).

I agree completely with Doerr's statement that our drive to stay connected is driven by our need for self-validation through the online experience. "Am I still here" translates to "does anyone remember me?".. "am I still connected?".. "am I important?" This is somewhat disturbing given that a person's self-worth could actually be tied into whether they receive an email or get a "tweet". How do we balance all this, and can we? Are we just destined to see a whole new host of technology-induced psychological disorders, or am I taking this too far? In my opinion, more and more people are seeking that validation in cyberspace because they have less-fulfilling social relationships in the real world and they feel a greater sense of disconnectiveness in their day to day lives (to some degree structural as our communities evolve, and we no longer know or want to know our neighbors, and we become megafocused on our own lives and less interested in the lives of others).

Ultimately, our need to stay connected could be creating distractions that let us tune out more important things in the real world. Clive Thompson's New York Time's article The Life Hackers evaluates research on how these distractions impact cognition. Distractability it seems has a lot to do with spatial and visual representation of data and events. The research of Czerwiski and Horvitz in the use of AI to moderate common workplace distractions that inhibit productivity mentioned in Thompson's article provided a sci-fi solution to technologically-cluttered minds. But will we awake one day to learn that all our technological advances have rendered us redundant and that technology is controlling rather than improving our day to day lives? A scary thought to ponder... as soon as I finish reading my emails and checking my text messages.

References:

"HAL 9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey" (Wikipedia)
"The Borg", Star Trek: The Next Generation (CBS Paramount Television, CBS Studios, 2006)
"The Lawn Mower Man" (IMDb, The Internet Movie Database, 1992)
"Am I Still Here?" (Doerr, Orion Magazine, 2009)
"The End of Alone" (Swidely, Boston Globe, 2008)
"Meet the Life Hackers" (Thompson, NY Times, 2005)