How is social media changing the world?

Is immediate access to information changing the way learners look at the world?

This week's question is asking us to address the ideas of Clay Shirky, an NYU professor who is a social media guru of sorts. The link to the video assigned to us for this module was broken for me, and try as I might I couldn't get it to load. SO - I "googled" the professor's name and watched 2 video clips that I think might be good substitutes for the one associated with module 8 - one on youtube and one on TED.

On social media changing the world: Basically it seems that from the youtube piece, Shirky postulates that social media is effective because of the intrinsic motivation of "membership and sharing" that drives people to want to be joiners of groups. In that setting, people can define successful group interaction in a number of ways: by just having a meaningful conversation or by actually "doing" any number of tasks. Shirky believes because these groups are self-defined so can their goals, and they can be inclusive or exclusive, with both formats being beneficial depending on the needs of the participant. He also points out that social media groups have natural endings, and that that is powerful and real and happens much faster than social groups of old. In the TED segment, Shirky is addressing a governmental group, and is expounding upon the effects of social media on history - claiming that social media is the latest in a line of technological innovations that have changed life on earth such as the printing press, telegraph/phone, recording, and television/radio. He gives the group a variety of applications for social media, such as "Video the Vote" in 2008 (to avoid voter fraud), disaster relief communication and political advocacy in non-democratic nations. His idea that the difference between previous media innovations and social media is that social media is both a product and a vehicle of delivery for all previous products takes on a very omninous tone when he follows that insight with the realization that in social media the "audience is the producer, not a consumer".

So - is immediate access changing the way learners view the world? Absolutely - learners own the world now, and anyone can be a published authority on any topic! The internet can provide rich user experience, but social media grants the privilege of creation of experience to any savvy user. Social media is very new to many Americans, but really it shouldn't feel like it - television viewers of a certain generation understand that broadcast media transitionned from network news and produced dramas/sitcoms/variety shows in the early days to talk shows as news and "reality TV" shows in the last 20 years for the same reasons. Was it Andy Warhol who claimed that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes? Americans might have assumed it would be on TV or in the movies, maybe even in the newspaper, but social media makes experts and geniuses out of anyone with an internet connection today!