The compulsory post, again. But hopefully it’ll give you something to ponder on…
Last week we had an excellent, over-excited lecture by Dr Claire Wardle, who is leading bits of the the UGC (user generated content) and technology charge at the BBC.
One of the websites she mentioned (which I’ve been having fun with for about a week now, incidentally) was Addictomatic. It lets you see what all the social media are saying about something at once, and it’s a real insight – try the gay blood ban, for instance, which is now under review (hooray – see my last post on this).
But I must say – its slogan scares the living hell out of me. The idea that we should be inhaling the web implies that we need it to live – that Twitter, Facebook et al are the sole force that bond the whole of the world. It’s easy to forget, but – they’re not.
I was talking to my new ward councillor yesterday, and he was sceptical of Twitter’s influence. Why? Because many of the people who matter from a news and a council point of view are about as far from being on Twitter or anything else as you can get. They range from the asylum seekers, the migrant workers and those in council housing, to the petty thieves, the drug users and the neglected kids.
These are voices that most need to be heard, yet still they are comparatively invisible on the social media (in Britain, at least – I’m not referring to those who tweeted from earthquakes or dodgy elections). It’s time to use a massive cliche (if I haven’t done already!) but if we’re in inhaling the world through a site like Addictomatic, is it not a bit like inhaling the world through air conditioning?
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