Image via CrunchBase
As a buildup to our upcoming Perspectives interview with Kristen Cambell, Director of Programs and New Media the National Conference on Citizenship, that will be published this Thanksgiving week, we wanted to point our loyal readers to a brewing debate about social media as a change-agent for good – that social media have the capabilities of influencing meaningful behavioral changes among people and help institute (at least ‘organize’) systemic/institutional change. John Locke wrote hundreds of pages about the family, not the king, as the bedrock of a free political society – and it still took a half-century for the American colonists to revolt. How can a bunch of 140-character tweets instigate such change? Many believe it already has…
Certainly the folks at Twitter believe their service has helped expand the common good. Claire Williams Diaz, in charge Corporate Social Innovation & Philanthropy at Twitter, is here interviewed by video-blogger and writer JD Lasica:
How Twitter helps the social good from JD Lasica.
Similar support comes from Jennifer Aaker, who has co-written The Dragonfly Effect, which chronicles some specific examples of how social media has saved lives and/or motivated community action. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has posted an audio interview of her here, where she focuses on the case of Sameer Bhatia. His friends were able to use social media to find many thousands of compatible donors to help him fight with his diagnosed leukemia. The takeaway from her interview about the power of social media: “Set a single, concrete goal, and never underestimate what a powerful narrative can do.”
But there are some naysayers, and in our drive to be “Fair and Balanced” we will present some of the challenges raised against the value against social media tomorrow. Please take a break from your Thanksgiving plans and join us.
