Today, we had another meeting with some members of the places2b group, not to discover a place2b, but for getting a deeper insight into Facebook. Half of the group already use Facebook, the other half even had heard about it.
With the help of the summary Hagen prepared, we discovered fast the main points and some people learned something new.
But, very soon we were in a hot discussion about sense and nonsense of using something like Facebook and later on, what the hell the Internet enables.
Here are the main points listed:
- You can connect and access everything, there is no secret in the world,
- there is no privacy, you don’t know who has and use your data
- social relations are more and more reduced to Facebook friends-collections
- people send emails and messages instead talking to each other.
- There should not be everything in the web, not even the “secret” places we will discover. What will happen, when all the tourists visit these places? We should keep them secret!
I am not that good in using the French language, and that’s why, I was not able to argue with precise words at the moment. Therefore some written words in English first.
Well, all is true, and it might be bad somehow. But, there are also some good points in the way communication has been changed.
The “good, old times”, when you were only the reader and not the creator of the news, when you could not buy or sell goods around the world, when it was difficult to stay in continuous contact with friends and family far away from your place, are over! Even the protection of your privacy was dubious. You always created a trail when living in a place, signing contracts, making phone calls, take money from your bank account. Could you always control who was doing what with your data?
I realized, in different situations, that the same people who are claiming for more transparency in politics are often trying to hide their knowledge. But, they also use the great possibilities of the web, if it’s suitable for them.
And there is nothing you can say against it, that is the web today: to communicate fast, spread information, create news, share knowledge, make business.
Imagine, you want to raise awareness of sustainable development, you want to protect nature, create a new business, you need to tell the world about it. Ok, you can go to your neighbours and discuss that issue, write a petition and call some friends and a journalist, have meetings, etc.
The journalist will probably write an article which will be published in the newspaper AND on the newspapers website, tweet about, post it to Facebook. Your concern will profit because there are for sure a lot more readers on the web than subscriptions of the paper. You will get a wider publicity using different communication channels and meet probably your goal (well that depends not only on the use of communications channels).
In that way not you chose the channels but others. You could have more fun, make new friends, inspiration, empower and motivate more people, if you actively use these media.
Love it or not, you can’t ignore the change of communication.
As Lisa Reichelt said ” …communication has become so convenient that it’s actually become ambient around us. It surrounds us wherever we want it, not necessarily when it wants us. We dip into it whenever we like.”