Social media and its unprecedented power

Ivanna, a young woman living in New York City, leaves her three-hundred-dollar partner (T-Mobile’s version of the iPhone) in a cab. Over the course of the next few days, the story of the 16-year-old named Sasha who found but refused to return the lost phone to Ivanna mobilizes New Yorkers so much that New York City police arrest the 16-year-old. years and retrieve the stolen Sidekick. and give it back to Ivanna.

Ha, you say?

By no means would one of the most active police departments in the country get involved in such a trivial problem; 10 years ago, maybe even 5, you would be right, but not today.

This is a true story, albeit a remarkable one. Without the persistence and zeal of Ivanna’s friend Evan Guttman, a programmer in the financial industry, the story would not have made it to Digg and then to the front page of the New York Times.

And Ivanna didn’t want her phone back.

Clay Shirky, in his 2008 book, Here Everyone is coming applications the story of the lost phone to illustrate several points:

  • There is no animal more social than man.
  • Due to the emergence of social media, the barriers that once prevented the average man or woman from galvanizing a staggering number of people to achieve the unthinkable are gone.
  • Collective action can now be achieved on an unprecedented scale.
  • Sociology has long taught that the psychology of individuals cannot be applied to group behavior; people in groups behave in ways that cannot be predicted by studying individual minds.

Many theorize that the so-called Arab Spring began with the overthrow of the Egyptian dictator Mubarak. Furthermore, many young Egyptians apparently call themselves Facebook because their parents believe that it was ordinary people like them, talking, planning and organizing on Facebook, that overthrew Mubarak and his government.

More than 50 years ago, we witnessed the effects of young people coming together to change the world.

And they changed the world, they did.

Imagine if we had the technology available today?

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