On being jaded with social media for social change
This post/comment may sound ranty. You’ve been warned
Joe Solomon (@engagejoe) is one of the very few “social media for social change” people I trust the most. Joe and I may butt heads on our approaches to how we focus our work in harnessing the power of social media to effect change, but we certainly agree on one thing: there’s a lot of promise for the social networking tools in effecting positive social change.
This is my response to Joe’s questions on his NetSquared post:
* Are you jaded about social media for change? How come; what happened? How does this affect your work?
* How can we address this and move from being unmotived to being on a more even (if not excited) keel?
* What are your reactions to some of the questions, feelings, suggestions folks shared above?
My responses below:
Thanks for this post, Joe, and for everyone who chimed in beforehand. As I said, I’m better at reacting at things (this comes from my academic training – I’m an analyst of issues and problems, and then I propose solutions). I can only speak from my two organizational experiences (VanChangeCamp very marginally, as I am no longer really involved and MentalHealthCamp).
Early on, Isabella Mori and I decided that we would be the only organizers instead of setting up a committee. This worked in our favor as we are hive minds. We think so much alike it’s unbelievable. We thought out and created a framework of collaboration within which participants of Mental Health Camp would work (presenters, volunteers, organizers). I think much of the success of MHC Vancouver was that we created a framework for openness, discussion, respect for people who shared their stories and the underlying desire to break down the stigma of mental illness and THEN we used social media tools to expand our reach and talk to potential attendees, speakers, etc.
I am sharing these findings because those respond to the last point you made – can we find a target and THEN apply a social media toolkit to it? My answer is – Yes, we can. That’s I think how we ended up being so successful. The participants were engaged, but they were engaged within a framework of mutual respect, love, warmth and sharing. If you were attending MHC you knew what you were going to be in for. You knew that you would be hearing other people’s stories of struggling with mental illness and you needed to be open minded, and be respectful and sensitive to these stories, and react in ways that would empower those who shared their stories. I was amazed at the quality of participants and speakers, and truly honored that they shared in this effort.
The question you ask – ARE WE JADED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL CHANGE? has a good answer that nobody is willing to give – yes, we are, but we aren’t being honest. We all want support for our event, yet we are reluctant or wary to support others events. What happened to “do unto others as you’d like to have done unto you”?. Many people from whom I expected at least a retweet did NOT support my efforts with Mental Health Camp. Many people from the actual social media for social change community, in fact. How does that make me feel? Jaded.
The fact of the matter is – our best bet for the use of social media for social change, in my opinion, is to be honest, respectful and forthcoming in what we expect from our application of online tools to effecting social change. In my view, Mental Health Camp was hugely successful, and there were many reasons why it was, but much of that was the support from the online community (please note that I said the community and not EVERYONE in the community).
I also think that it is important to be selective, strategic and focused in how we approach social media for social change. You can’t be everybody’s hero. Choose one or two projects. Go small and then scale up and go viral. And more importantly, remember the rule of RECIPROCITY. If you want support on your project, make sure that you’ve supported other projects. I had a really bad experience supporting a social media for social change initiative and then asking for support and not even getting a reply tweet back. Not the best way to get me to support this person’s next event, right?
I had also mentioned to Joe that I react very badly to pressure, and I have a policy of being selective. I choose carefully which projects I support but when I support them, I’m fully behind them. I don’t like being pressured into anything, and I’m sure many people feel the same way I do but don’t publicly disclose this. Gentle nudging and negotiation always wins (at least with me!)
One of the biggest challenges and people fail to realize this is – there are SO MANY PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD. It’s hard to get support from everyone. I think Beth Kanter asked in a post how to deal with so many causes (a while ago). One of the best ways, I think, is to re-direct. If you can’t help support a cause, why not get a friend (online or offline) involved? I didn’t know anyone in the mental health community, and now I do thanks to people who were in the MH community who introduced me to other people. Isabella and I got a lot of support from people who weren’t even online!
Overall, my bottom line is – let’s look at problems, create a framework to solve them and then engage the social media toolkit. Within that social media tool kit we should never forget to treat everyone in the social media for social change community with respect and interest. Otherwise, the likelihood that people will react favorably to our initiatives will be very small.
My 2 cents.
Related posts:
- Mental Health Social Media Chat #mhsm
- Social Media Club Vancouver launch
- My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
- Video as a tool to effect social change – An example from Giant Ant Media
- Social media for charity and social change roundup (Vancouver)
Are we jaded? Well, not all of us have been around long enough to be jaded. One of Joe’s original commenters talked about how she was in the biz 15+ years ago, others had similar stories. Lots of us are noobs, don’t know the rules, have wide eyes, big feet, and tend to rub the early adopters wrong.
The rules in the real world apply to social media in so far as etiquette and courtesy, but many of us forget that. Good deeds and small courtesies should be rewarded and remembered. Also, a lack of a sense of entitlement will shield us from disappointment and burnout as well.
One of the things that seems worthwhile to reiterate from other commentators is that SM is a tool, like the telegraph, telephone, and email. It is a means to an end. Just like many other technologies, its virtue of allowing simultaneous communication with multiple individuals without the requirement of physical proximity must always be balanced against the benefits of that proximity in human communication.
My personal experience is that there is an indescribable benefit to “live” communication. It is by far the deepest, richest social media, and builds the most lasting and mutually beneficial relationships.
To expect the same outcome from a technology that removes that ephemeral nature of live one-on-one communication cannot but disappoint.
Agree with OperaBladeRunnr that social media is a tool – I have been engaged my entire life in effecting social change but am REALLY new to social media. To effect lasting social change and truly build capacity, it is sometimes necessary to go at the speed of the “slowest” person; this could be extremely frustrating to the early adopters of social media who are working at warp speed.
As for reciprocity – it is no different in the “social media for social change” sphere than in others. My son is an actor and makes an effort to support fellow thespians by attending their shows, promoting their events, etc. These actions are not always returned.
In any endeavour, we can choose to ally ourselves with people who are supporters and cheerleaders, rather than cynics.
Also, respectfully – do we have the right to be jaded? The communities (human and physical) where we want to effect change do not have the privilege of being “jaded” – they are in their situations every day, whether they change or not.
I think of my friends Ethel and Susanna in their townships in South Africa – they dare not become “jaded”; there are too many orphans and grandmothers counting on them for leadership.
Hey Raul – all of a sudden, I’m wondering if I gave support to #mentalhealthcamp in any way. It’s a cause I have a lot of empathy for, and so I hope I at least gave an RT or two! If not, it wasn’t for lack of support, just not organized on my end, or distracted.
On the topic as a whole, I’m the opposite of jaded. It’s been a joy to me to discover how many people are engaged citizens and, in their own ways, contributing to positive change. Social media has heightened my awareness and my informed-ness exponentially. Even things as little as the facebook calendar ensures I take note of events, and remember to turn up!
nancy (aka money coach)’s last blog post..Freebie (or nearly) Wed: Free stuff to do, coast to coast
Everyone – I have to make one point clear – I think the “being jaded” phrase was taken out of context. I love giving to the community. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t. What ‘jaded’ means in this context is to be frustrated with the ‘status quo’. I wrote a while ago on the fact that more people were tweeting about Oprah’s first tweet than about relevant things, like the fact that 1 billion people live without access to clean water.
I like relevance. I like action. I like doing things, not talking about them. That’s why I am speaking on an “action-oriented” agenda at Social Media Club Victoria. The objective is there, social media tools are just that, tools. They help me achieve my goal.
Raul,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful response (and kind words)!
I agree with you that we’re all in this together and need to be supportive of each others’ projects. I’m also with you, operabladerunnr, and lacouvee: social media is a toolkit, which is part of larger toolkit, for achieving social change.
Having read your post and so many of the truly insightful comments, I must say I’m beginning to feel less jaded. As I begin to see social media as more of a tool – I’m beginning to think more of the change I want to see in the world (instead of thinking how to use Twitter in more whiz-bang fashion).
Just yesterday I walked into a no-kill cat shelter and saw so many cats who were looking for homes. Like, literally, stacked in so many cages. I immediately thought of ways social media might help them connect to more homes. In a blur, so much of the excitement came back.
I’m with you — Starting with “problems” and “challenges” and even envisioning “better possibilities” feels like much more of a sustainable place to start from.