Since the Industrial Revolution, technological innovation has been at the forefront of human development; in all fields. The digital technology revolution of the past 20 years has simply indicated the next step in human innovation. We hardly have a moment to stop and marvel at these amazing developments and their capabilities as we quickly adapt and integrate them into our daily lives. One element of the digital revolution, however, distinguishes it from past achievement, that is the emergence of the digital social network. If the power of the network is realised, harnessed and developed through new technologies, society has the potential not simple to change the future landscape of media, culture and social change but invent and create change for the future.
A global social network is only powerful because humanity is powerful. Humans are amazingly gifted yet most skills and ideas remain largely untouched in a large and often isolating world. Collaboration and unification is the key, and the social network is the structure in which this is achieved. The Knife Party in its video “The Coalition of the Willing” identified the power of the “swarm”, basically power in numbers, to address the issue of climate change. They then outlined a tangible structure, based on social networking and connectivity technologies on which any person can assist in achieving change. We are entering a Brave New World in which the capabilities of people party can easily be harnessed and directed at particular aims.
Already we have seen the impacts of the growing social network. As I identified in my post Human Network > Media Ecology, human relationships, brought together on a large scale through networks is changing the way in which we must view media ecologies. We are now at a point where we must not only study the media’s impact on us as a collective but also the collective’s impact on the media. This has led to the emergence of ideas such as Guattari’s “transversality” in our approach to media. Within culture, digital technology and the network have allowed people to express themselves and share their ideas and creativity. It is simple as jumping on to youtube to see the potential being allowed to be fullfilled.
But what change will the future bring? And what is the key to bringing change to the future? In media like many industries there is a need to recognise change is inevitable and only adaptability will allow it to flourish and develop as both an industry and a practice. In Murphie’s “new media studies” (Murphie 2006), more people will have the ability to shape and share news and media. If we go back to Genosko’s obscure ‘scared horses’ metaphor, if media institutions allow the “blinkers to be open” (Genosko in Guattari, 2000:118/Guattari, 1972: 79) the media and the networked population who is now a greater part of it will be able to exist in a more harmonious and productive way.
In regards to culture and social change, the network will be at the absolute heart of any change achieved. Jane McGonigal’s inspiring ideas on how future problems will be solved by more people playing video games online is grounded on the concept of the social network (if you’re asking how playing video games could possibly solve world problems, see this video). She seeks to create change by harnessing the abilities and drive that people exert in playing online games into solving world problems through similar modes of technology. At its heart, however, it is about as many people as possible contributing their ideas and working together through an online network that promotes and facilitates people to be involved. Her ideas in some respects mirror that of the “coalition of the willing” in their creation of a network infrastructure to allow people to connect and take practical steps to combat climate change.
While the network will facilitate change, other technologies will allow it to happen. The development of instantaneous digital media and the virtual reality technology I examined in my post a few weeks ago will have the ability to alter and improve our methods of thinking and creation in almost every industry. Ultimately, people achieve change. And the more people who come together the greater the change that can be achieved. For thousands of years people have known and seen the potential of power in numbers. We are now in an age where soon that power will be harnessed on a global scale. People across the world who want to achieve good will be brought together to achieve it.
References
Guattari, F. ”l’inconscient machinique: essays de schizo-analyse” (1979), Paris: EncresEditions Recherches.
Murphie, A. (2006) “Editorial”, [on transversality], the Fibreculture Journal, 9
Knife Party and Rayner, Tim and Robson, Simon (2010) Coalition of the Willing [Online, accessed 27/04/2011]http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/
