JOSH ROSE

Josh Rose is the chief creative officer at Weber Shandwick, an internationally recognized public relations firm. We reprint this article that was published on Mashable.com, an online source that reports on digital innovation, on February 23, 2011.

How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture

Two events today, although worlds apart, seem inextricably tied together. And the bond between them is as human as it is electronic.

First, on my way to go sit down and read the newspaper at my coffee shop, I got a message from my ten-year-old son, just saying good morning and letting me know he was going to a birthday party today. I don’t get to see him all the time. He’s growing up in two houses, as I did. But recently I handed down my old iPhone 3G to him to use basically as an iPod touch. We both installed an app called Yak, so we could communicate with each other when we’re apart.

The amount of calming satisfaction it gives me to be able to communicate with him through technology is undeniably palpable and human. It’s the other side of the “I don’t care what you ate for breakfast this morning” argument against the mundane broadcasting of social media. In this case, I absolutely care about this. I’d listen to him describe a piece of bacon, and hang on every word. Is it better than a conversation with “real words”? No. But is it better than waiting two more days, when the mundane moment that I long to hear about so much is gone? Yes.

I guess one man’s TMI is another man’s treasure.

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5 Moments later, I sat down and opened the paper. A headline immediately stood out: “In China, microblogs finding abducted kids” with the subhead, “A 6-year-old who was snatched when he was 3 is discovered with a family 800 miles away.” Apparently, the occurrence of reclaimed children through the use of China’s version of Twitter — and other online forums — has become triumphant news over there. I’m reading about the father’s tears, the boy’s own confusing set of emotions, the rapt attention of the town and country, and I’m again marveling at the human side of the Internet.

THE PARADOX OF ONLINE CLOSENESS

I recently asked the question to my Facebook friends: “Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare . . . is all this making you feel closer to people or farther away?” It sparked a lot of responses and seemed to touch one of our generation’s exposed nerves. What is the effect of the Internet and social media on our humanity?

From the outside view, digital interactions appear to be cold and inhuman. There’s no denying that. And without doubt, given the choice between hugging someone and “poking” someone, I think we can all agree which one feels better. The theme of the responses to my Facebook question seemed to be summed up by my friend Jason, who wrote: “Closer to people I’m far away from.” Then, a minute later, wrote, “but maybe farther from the people I’m close enough to.” And then added, “I just got confused.”

It is confusing. We live in this paradox now, where two seemingly conflicting realities exist side-by-side. Social media simultaneously draws us nearer and distances us. But I think very often, we lament what we miss and forget to admire what we’ve become. And it’s human nature to want to reject the machine at the moment we feel it becoming ubiquitous. We’ve seen it with the printing press, moving pictures, television, video games, and just about any other advanced technology that captures our attention. What romantic rituals of relationship and social interaction will die in the process? Our hearts want to know.

In the New Yorker this week [February 14, 2011] Adam Gopnik’s article “How the Internet Gets Inside Us” explores this cultural truism in depth. It’s a fantastic read and should be mandatory for anyone in an online industry. He breaks down a whole slew of new books on the subject and categorizes it all into three viewpoints: “the Never-Betters, the Better-Nevers, and the Ever-Wasers.” In short, those who see the current movement as good, bad, or normal. I think we all know people from each camp. But ultimately, the last group is the one best equipped to handle it all.

FILLING IN THE SPACE WITH CONNECTIONS

10 Another observation from the coffee shop: In my immediate vicinity, four people are looking at screens and four people are reading something on paper. And I’m doing both. I see Facebook open on two screens, but I’m sure at some point, it’s been open on all of them. The dynamic in this coffee shop is quite a bit more revealing than any article or book. Think about the varied juxtapositions of physical and digital going on. People aren’t giving up long-form reading, considered thinking, or social interactions. They are just filling all the space between. And even that’s not entirely true as I watch the occasional stare out the window or long glance around the room.

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The way people engage with the Internet and social media isn’t like any kind of interaction we’ve ever seen before. It’s like an intertwining sine wave that touches in and out continuously. And the Internet itself is more complex and interesting than we often give it credit for. Consider peer-to-peer networking as just one example, where the tasks are distributed among the group to form a whole. It’s practically a metaphor for the human mind. Or a township. Or a government. Or a family.

The Internet doesn’t steal our humanity, it reflects it. The Internet doesn’t get inside us, it shows what’s inside us. And social media isn’t cold, it’s just complex and hard to define. I’ve always thought that you really see something’s value when you try to destroy it. As we have now laid witness to in recent news, the Internet has quickly become the atom of cultural media; intertwined with our familial and cultural bonds, and destroyed only at great risk. I think if we search our own souls and consider our own personal way of navigating, we know this is as true personally as it is globally. The machine does not control us. It is a tool. As advanced today as a sharpened stick was a couple million years ago. Looked at through this lens, perhaps we should reframe our discussions about technology from how it is changing us to how we are using it.