Twisted Genius

Communication in the Social Age

The internet and social media are two powerful forces of communication.  They gave us our first black president, freed a nation from tyranny, and raised millions of dollars for charity.  OK, I should be a little less dramatic – the internet and social media helped all of these things happen.  It’s easy to forget that distinction in an age where social media can do no wrong.  I in no way intend to bash social networking because I do believe it is and will remain to be an amazing connector of humans, but I’m concerned about how our communication is developing due to the constraints in our current systems.

Let’s begin at the beginning.  We started out a very simple people. We awoke in our caves, grunted a bit, tried to eat, and went back to bed.  In the beginning our communication consisted of declarations like “Me Grog” and “You Jane” and “Me kill beast.”  Social discourse had yet to be invented.  But at some point (and exhaustive research has failed to turn up the rightful inventor) someone invented the Question. I’m guessing it was one of the weaker members of the tribe that had asthma and just wasn’t going on another day long sabertooth hunt.  Maybe the first question was something like “Can me stay home today?  Medicine man give me note.”  An argument most likely ensued and discussion was born.

This simple idea of a question has led to extraordinary developments throughout history.  Socrates developed an entire method of teaching based solely on asking questions.  Great minds during the renaissance asked the universe and themselves questions and called it natural philosophy.  Later we put rules to those questions and called it science.  Then a brilliant man by the name Einstein came along and asked himself and his colleagues such challenging questions (they called them thought experiments) that they were able to divine things so counter intuitive that people today still don’t understand half of it.  This simple human curiosity sparked by that first cavegeek has driven us to unimaginable heights.

One of those heights is certainly the internet today.  Our greatest answer yet to all of our questions.  Search!  With all of our questions answered we turn to the social web to communicate.  And this is what some of our top minds are saying as a result, “Check out this article – http://thrl.st/lgSPlM” or “I’m at [insert trendy spot you’re not really at]!” or “I just met with [insert not really but sort of famous social media person].”  Somehow, with all of the technical power at our disposal, we have reverted back to primitive communication methods.  If you were to stand up at a restaurant, shout that you were eating with Lou F, and wait for people to comment then you’d probably be labeled a crazy person.  And yet this is exactly what we do on social media all day long. 

I think we can all agree this began with the rise of Facebook, Twitter, and their lesser social media allies.  But what is a bit more subtle is why it is like this. I think it’s rather simple - this is a new form of communication and we had to start over from the beginning. If you built anything more complicated then people wouldn’t know how to use it.  So all of these first guys had to simplify down to status updates and shouting. But now we can develop on top of these successes and reinvent the Social Media Question.  If we don’t then we may become connected only to lose discussion in the process.

I would argue this is not a big problem for those of us who grew up in the internet of chat rooms, forums, and discussion boards.  We’ve long known debate and discussion whether it be Pro Choice vs. Pro Life, Picard vs. Kirk, or East Coast vs. West Coast Rap.  But what about the generation that views these interactive forms of digital communication as outdated as tight-rolled jeans, IOU sweatshirts, and hypercolors?  Here I am, falling into the old man “think-of-the-children” trap, but when all you hear and do is this one-sided/self-promoting, declarative communication then you begin to be defined by it. My point is this: social media is tremendously powerful, its impact on the world has barely been realized, but we need to develop it further.  We need apps and tools that allow us to utilize all of our human communication methods, and possibly more importantly, we need to instill and develop a curiosity and inquisitive nature in the next generation.  Perhaps if Rome had more Facciolibro Questiones™ and Quora.it™ and less Coliseum we’d all be speaking Italian today.

Disclaimer: I run a company called locai that builds mobile apps so you can have interactive experiences at places.  Our major focus is conversation and discussion.