"It's when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming." Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
As I read this quote in our text reading, I was so excited, I think I yelled out loud. You know when someone says something so well, something you've been in the verge of discovering yourself, that everything just clicks? That's how this quote was for me. For a while now, I have had this frustrated feeling during conversations about social media. As much as I like a good discussion, and as much as I believe there are both pros and cons to social media and it's impact, I often feel like these discussions are like discussing the pros and cons of cassette tapes versus CDs, VHS to DVD, etc. It kinda doesn't matter anymore what we think. We can argue the pros and cons of social technology all day, but it will not change the reality. And the reality is social media tools are so embedded in our 1st world culture, so "ubiquitous" (I think this is one of Shirky's favorite words) that they really are becoming invisible. I think this is the cause of my frustration every time a debate takes place about the pros and cons of social media. These conversations are the equivalent to "When I was young, I had to walk to school up hills both ways!"
Yes, it is very important to know the good and the bad in all these tools, especially as "professional gatekeepers". But these conversations need to be about how to help people navigate this digitally social world. This is a whole other topic I could've written a blog post on, but I will say briefly that we can still be professional gatekeepers in a world of social media; but the definition of a gatekeeper needs to be redefined, just as it has throughout history. We can be teachers of the tools that some people don't even realize are "tools," they are just a way of life. Gatekeeper does not mean dictator. As gatekeepers, we need to let the good through, too. And I strongly believe that using social media tools with knowledge and intent can only lead to positive things.
The one problem I have with the quote above is Shirky's use of "young people". Perhaps in 2008 only young people were using social media (I was still in my 20s in 2008, so case in point, perhaps). But I don't think this is the case anymore. How many people reading this have grandmas and grandpas on Facebook? Even if a person is not participating in social tools, this person is still surrounded by them: watching the news at night and having the anchor quote something a politician tweeted, going through Dairy Queen drive-thru and seeing a sign to like them on Facebook to get an instant coupon, or getting an email from a family member saying you can view their family vacation pictures on Flickr with this link, and so on, and so on. Because of this prevalence, I think one could make a strong case that social tools already are invisible, and if not social tools themselves, then definitely the attitudes and philosophies that brought about this digitally social revolution.
1 comments:
I agree that the argument should no longer be about whether or not social networking is a trend. It's here, and it's not going to crawl back into the hole that it came out of. As with any drastic societal change, there are people at the forefront, people riding the wave, and people resistant to change. I think the real issue is figuring out where we fit in. Some of us will always jump on the newest technology, and some of us will always hesitate and watch to see what happens (either in eager anticipation or with dread of inevitability). The real question is how libraries and librarians choose to respond, not necessarily as individuals, but as a whole. Integrating tools can be free/inexpensive and easy to experiment with (i.e. library blogs or Facebook pages), or it can have grave financial consequences if a poorly thought out decision is made (i.e. OPACs or eBook management systems). In addition to riding the wave of change, librarians have a responsibility of becoming/remaining digitally literate so that we can best guide others in navigating these changes, both through instruction and through through the implementation of tools that can help navigate the changing formats and mass quantities of information flooding the world.
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