If you haven't heard about the Spike Lee tweet involved in the Trayvon Martin shooting take a second and read that link. Don't worry, this isn't about to get political or anything of the sort. In fact, it's a much different post than most here, but one that this story has me thinking deeply on. I pose this question today, "Is social media just a digital mob?"
We hear every day about people getting news from Twitter or other online sources faster, and in more real time, than ever before. In most cases, people see the news happening instead of reading about it after. Think back to the Egyptian situation last year or the Libyan battles being told in real time. The masses hear something, make a judgement call, and move on. I personally, as mentioned in my "One Word" post, tend to lean towards truth and honesty, with integrity above all in my postings and online activities. I'm the skeptic, the one who reads and asks "how" or "why" before making a judgement call. Sadly, not everyone ever even wants to get to either of those. They are happy being informed, be it truth or rumor, and moving forward with their initial assessment.
If you have never been involved in a "mob mentality" type situation, believe you me, they are frightening and amazing at the same time! They've been like that since the days of the Roman Colosseum, and it's with that thought that I ask, has anything really changed other than the medium? Are we still making judgement calls as they did so many years ago in those arenas, just through Twitter or Facebook providing the "cheering" to egg us on.
One of the nice and amazing things that LinkedIn has done is make us honest about our work history. No more fiibbing and fudging saying that you graduated top of your class or that you held a vice presidents job at a manufacturing company (no one has ever heard of). If you do that today on LinkedIn, someone in your network will cry foul. The same goes for pretty much every social platform out there actually. The "green curtain" that may have been up for some is now down, and everyone can see "your inner wizard".
Yet, for all the good that can come form this level of transparency, the same level of malice can be wrought as well. This is why I stress so heavily that it is a great differentiator to have, and manage, a personal branding strategy. If I post something filled with malice and malcontent, similar to me saying I was VP of Ford, most people would cry foul and not believe it. Most would, and should, call me crazy. In addition, they would immediately call me out publicly on it through my social networks.
In this case, this post doesn't appear to have done any damage initially, but in the long run, who knows? Is this any different than someone running into a theater and yelling "Fire!" at the top of their lungs? Some people, believe it or not, believe everything they read, even on the internet. I know, it's shocking. Yet centuries removed from the gladiator battles, we still tend to give that which we read the "Caesar Treatment" of "Thumbs up or down" at first pass. Heck, we're even prompted to do so on almost every page of the internet in print, with the famous "like" button staring us in the face. Add into that the potential size of the mob being ten fold with someone's social reach and the results could be staggering.
The only question left, is will your actions and strategy lead you to do good things with this kind of power? With that, I leave you with a famous quote from someone well aligned with this article:
"Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish." - Julius Caesar.
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