Social Media: I don’t want to know

IRobot: The rise of the Machine

By: Stephen Roesler

I often hear intelligent people saying they want nothing to do with Social Media. Habitually explained as “just another trend,” Social Media is frequently received as another trifling distraction from business. Instead of the desire to embrace, many prefer to remain blind to this social transformation. Whether we don’t have time or remain indifferent, apathy will not eliminate Social Media.

Rather than explain the business implications of ignoring the emerging social networking trends, let’s consider the societal implications of emerging technological forces.

Throughout education we are continually pounded like slabs of meat with one simple message, learn from history. However, if we’ve learned anything it is that humans, in fact, learn very little from these history lessons and that, itself, is a much larger lesson. Continually, the human experience is full of shock and bewilderment at our social state. Holocaust, genocide, war, poverty; we are relentlessly caught off guard by the forces that have seemingly emerged overnight. Today, it is the rise of the machine.

As our society becomes further dependent on technology, we are forced to compensate with over organization. As a result, more people live subordinate lives as they slave to the rhythmic pulse of Google’s uncouth palpitation. Meanwhile organizations inflate, bureaucracy expands and hierarchy deepens. Before long we have massive sectors of society unaware of the progressing hand of technology and the undeniable change of social condition. Suddenly, people find themselves in places they didn’t want to be, relentlessly engaging in things they never intended to do.

Social Media is fundamentally changing communication. It’s transforming the way we gather knowledge, it’s shaping how we understand our world and it remains an undeniably catalyst for immense social change.

At the hub of this revolution stands the proverbial “Search.” We’ve created algorithms that allow us to scour the collective knowledge of the human race, something that’s never been possible before the Internet. We maintain access to nearly any fact that’s ever been recorded. And we can find it in seconds. We are creating robots that are more accessible and clever than the human mind. Essentially, we are combining the brightest minds of our current world and pouring those capabilities into one organized system that is capable of hyper intelligence. I am not sure if it’s exciting, fascinating or redoubtable. Whatever it is, Social media is simply one clear way in which our society is progressing. Let’s not ignore where we’re heading.