Here Comes Social Media, Part Four

So, what did I think of the book?

Generally, I agreed with Shirky's arguments and conclusions. In particular, I liked how he stressed that the tools themselves are not what are causing social change -- people are the ones doing this, just like they always have; the Web tools are facilitating this, but the users are the drivers. At one point in the book, Shirky uses the printing press and how it replaced scribes as a historical analogue for what is happening now. People always wanted to create books and share information; Gutenberg's printing press just let them do this much more easily. I think the analogue works very well.

I also appreciated Shirky's understanding of the complexity of social media interactions and why they occur. In Chapter Eleven, he stresses that there is no "magic formula" for the success of a platform and that the interplay between its users and elements can create success that is hard or impossible to replicate elsewhere. A network of people on LinkedIn may look very different from one on LiveJournal, and a viral marketing campaign using Twitter could be either more or less successful than one built around Facebook. There's much about using these to accomplish a goal that is still unknown, and Shirky acknowledges (and even embraces) this.

Really, my only criticism of the book is that Shirky at times comes across as too triumphalist regarding social media and the Web as far as improving society. In his defense, he does acknowledge that they can have a dark side, such as his brief mentions of terrorists using them to coordinate attacks or his raising the question in Chapter One of whether social media can reinforce class differences. Nevertheless, I somewhat agree with reviewer Stuart Jefferies of the Guardian who wrote that Shirky sounded "naive about the desirable social changes being unleashed in new media...these tools and these rhetorics can just as readily be co-opted by The Man." Shirky often does come across as someone with an advocacy agenda, and a more balanced view would improve the book.

I hope that Shirky writes a follow-up to Here Comes Everybody at some point in the future, if not as a full-fledged book, then at least as a long article or series of blog posts. I think that it would be very interesting to look back five years from now, for example, at what he got right and what evolved in ways he didn't predict (if in fact anyone could). Shirky is correct that social media is helping people transform society faster than they have been able to before, and, although I think he underestimates the possible negative results, I do mostly agree with him that these changes are for the better.

Here Comes Social Media, Part Three

The decreased transactional costs associated with organizing, networking, and sharing using social media tools creates challenges for established institutions. Blogging platforms, for example, let users publish writings on any subject they desire. Though most blogs and LiveJournals are just used to talk about one's life and keep others informed on one's activities, some use these for chronicling current events and conducting their own version of online investigative journalism. Shirky asks the question, if anyone can be a journalist, does that mean everyone should be afforded the privileges given the established concept of a journalist (such as shield laws)? Traditionally, professions exist because of a need for skilled practitioners in a field with substantial barriers to entry, such as law or accounting. But what happens when someone can use a site such as Groklaw to find case history and precedents instead of paying for a lawyer's services? Shirky argues that the sharing enabled by social media and the Web in general will require us to redefine just who exactly a professional is.

Other examples of challenges to the existing order are Shirky's description of the birth of Wikipedia in Chapter Five and the illustration of how flash mobs were used to protest against the government of Belarus in Chapter Six. Wikipedia showed how people can be brought together by something other than a motivation for financial reward to produce something that often rivals (and sometimes exceeds) the work made by paid professionals. The protesters in Belarus show how social media works by “replacing planning with coordination” (p. 172) and the implications of institutions being unable to predict or forestall group activity, instead being only able to react to it. Improved coordination allows a smaller, weaker group to outmaneuver a larger, stronger opponent. Of course, the actions taken by these smaller groups can sometimes be destructive; Shirky uses terrorist cells as an example of the dark side of enhanced coordination. This reinforces the idea that social media and the Web are only tools, and that the end result is up to the user. Likewise, in Chapter Nine, Shirky uses the unsuccessful Howard Dean presidential campaign to show that just being connected is not enough – people need to have motivation, commitment, and drive to accomplish their goals, and just signing on to be a part of something big by itself will not get results if nobody is willing to commit to the grunt work.

Read on to Part Four to see my overall thoughts on the book and its arguments – where I think Shirky is right, and where I'm not so sure.

Here Comes Social Media, Part Two

Shirky's central argument in Here Comes Everybody is that social media tools by themselves are not going to change the world or drive significant changes. Rather, they enhance forces and behaviors that already exist in society by enabling the ease of coordination, and as a result, the speed of social change and the ability of small groups of people to influence it are greatly increased. As Shirky states in the book's first chapter, “The tools are simply a way of channeling existing motivation.” (p.17)

Shirky begins by providing examples of how events that have been happening long before the advent of social media tools (ranging from someone in Manhattan losing a cell phone to the 2006 coup in Thailand) can be dramatically changed by them. The tools enable people to communicate with others about their plight, connect with those in the same situation or who are sympathetic to them, and solicit advice and ideas from others to assist them with their situation. Additionally, they help with the sharing of information to those who otherwise might not know about it, raising public sympathy and even driving established institutions to action (such as causing the New York Police Department to treat the missing phone as a theft, or compelling the media, NGOs, and government bodies to pay attention to the coup by means of posting photos on Flickr). The people in these situations could have tried to do these things before the tools were around, but their chances of success were significantly enhanced by using them. Like Timothy B. Lee wrote in his review of Here Comes Everybody on Ars Technica, “Building an organization with thousands of members is an expensive and cumbersome process when your communications tools are the telephone and the US Postal Service. It's much easier and faster when members can sign up on a web site and communicate with one another via e-mail.”

A point that Shirky first makes in the second chapter and returns to throughout the book is that social media is enabling this phenomenon by lowering transactional costs. For example, it used to be that someone looking for a model railroad club to join near where they lived would have to find a physical directory of such organizations, ask around, look for announcements on bulletin boards or in local media, and generally expend significant time and energy to locate such a club (and that's assuming its presence was well-known or publicized). Not surprisingly, many people would think this was a lot of work, get discouraged, and give up. Yet with tools such as Meetup, Facebook, and others, finding the model railroad club would be just a matter of typing some words into a website. Furthermore, if a club didn't exist, these tools would make it very easy to start one and recruit members.

When one considers that these tools can also be used for activities with much greater effect on society, such as political organizing or issue advocacy, one can see how lowered transactional costs enables people to take collective action in unprecedented ways. Here Comes Everybody discusses this at length, which will be the subect of the third post in this series.

Here Comes Social Media, Part One

Note: the following will be a series of posts for my PWR 662 class in which I introduce and review Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. Regular posting will resume soon.

Since this is a blog, you are at least familiar in passing with social media by virtue of the fact that you are reading this. Social media tools such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other applications are becoming increasingly large parts of not only individual lives, but nonprofits, businesses, and even governments as well. As with any other widely adopted technology, social media and Web 2.0 applications change how people do things. Furthermore, they are seen as causing long-established institutions and systems to be, if not transformed or even destroyed, then at least challenged. To use this blog as an example, fifteen years ago I would have had to post this on a Web page using either a clunky template or HTML rather than a simple interface like Blogger, and twenty years ago I would have had to publish my thoughts in a newsletter or 'zine rather than online, since the Web as we know it did not exist yet.

But are they actually causing these radical changes? Clay Shirky, a consultant, adjunct professor of New Media at New York University, and the author of Here Comes Everybody disagrees. Shirky argues in the aforementioned book that the applications and software themselves are not causing the disruption – they are simply tools that people use to conduct activities (networking, organizing, sharing and creating) that they have been doing forever. The practical effects of these activities has been limited until now. With social media tools, however, they may be limitless. Starting in Part Two, I will examine what the book says about these ideas and their implications.

Tweet Tweet

As you may have noticed, I've added my Twitter feed to the right hand side of the page. My Twitter comments are much more stream-of-consciousness (and often less serious) than my blog posts, so you are forewarned.

Structure

In my last post, I talked about how, although you might be unemployed, you still probably have a lot of stuff to get done. A successful job hunt (usually) takes a lot of time by itself, and in the meantime, you have everything else in your life that normally needs doing. Although it seems like you have all the time in the world at first, it soon becomes all to easy to put things off and wonder where the day (or week, or month) has gone.

The best way to avoid this? Structure. When you plan out your day, even loosely, and maintain good habits, you'll be much more productive, and probably be unemployed for less time than if you just do whatever, whenever.

You shouldn't try to plan your day to the minute, or even to the hour, unless you find it works well for you. However, a basic plan or agenda will go a long way. The specifics of the plan will vary based on your needs and circumstances -- maybe you want to keep your evenings clear so that you can spend time with your family, perhaps you have classes or meetings during the week that you need to schedule around, or it could be that you're a night owl who works best when the rest of us are asleep. Whatever your needs, though, there are some aspects of planning that can apply to everyone:

Don't try to do everything in one day. Pace yourself, and set realistic goals for what you can get done in a day or week. Otherwise, you'll burn out. You may need a job, but spending twelve hours a day searching is not the most effective way of going about it.

Exercise. Physical activity will not only help you stay healthy, it will also energize you and keep you mentally focused as well. I'm not a fan of gyms, personally, but if you belong to one you should take advantage of it, and there's many other ways you can be physically active as well. Even just a walk around the neighborhood to get some fresh air is a great way to keep inertia from setting in.

Get enough sleep. Seriously, if you're unemployed, there's no excuse not to. That said...

Be available during standard work hours. If people call or email you about an interview or other opportunity, it will most likely be during the workday. Sleeping until one might be tempting, but if someone calls you at nine, that's at least four hours before you get their voice mail and can respond to them. And sometimes, getting a gig is a matter of speed. This doesn't mean you have to be at your computer for nine straight hours during the day (in fact, it's probably best if you're not), but you should stay in touch as best as you can.

Take part of a day (or even a whole day) off once in a while. Maybe it's to get a project around the house done; maybe it's just to get a break from the long slog of finding a new employer. But occasionally, you should put the search aside for a little bit to recharge, reflect, and relax.

Evaluate your time use periodically. Every so often, stop to think about what you're doing with your time and make adjustments if needed. Don't fall into a rut.

There's probably more you can do as well. I'll post suggestions down the road if I think of any good ones, and feel free to post anything you have found that works well for you in the comments.

Too Much Time On My Hands...Or Not

Since I am, ahem, "between positions" right now, my days are pretty much wide open. With a few exceptions, I don't have to be anywhere at a particular time and can spend my time how I please. At the same time, however, I have a lot that I need and want to get done. Obviously finding a new gig is by far and away the highest priority on the list, but there are some other things I need to do as well:

-- Blog (duh).
-- Finish renovating the master bathroom. I've been starting and stopping this for a long time and need to just finish this once and for all.
-- Organize the house in general and sell or donate a number of things I don't need.
-- Continue to develop my professional skills, and maybe start learning some new ones.
-- Continue to do the readings and homework for my classes (and eventually register for future classes and apply for financial aid for this summer and next year).
-- Start exercising regularly and getting a decent amount of sleep each night.
-- And of course, spend time with my family and friends.

So, as you can see, what looks like a day all to myself can very quickly be filled up with all kinds of things to do. How am I going to accomplish all of this? That's going to be the topic of my next post.