There was a time when it was said that technology divided us, isolated us. I was there, hunched over my Mac Plus while creating layouts or spreadsheets, or even playing NetTrek. Where did the time come from to do that? Time I spent with other people. So while I may have been learning the skills that would define my career for the next two decades, I was becoming more isolated (and larger!).
The Internet started to change that, initially we could email each other and as bandwidth increased even share photos via email. There was hope that other life existed out there, though evidence came only at the ring of the email alert, or, egads, “You’ve got mail.”
Fast forward to 2010 (twenty-ten according to some, not two thousand ten—I’m on board with that). We are now a social beehive of activity online, between Facebook and Twitter, and the countless other more specialized social media sites available. Our humanity is catching up with us.
Most people enjoy gathering and sharing stories. Some like larger groups, others prefer more intimacy. We learn about life from these stories. When people get together, information is exchanged back in forth in small nuggets, or chunks. This explains the success of social media.
For the first time since the dawn of communications technology (which dates back to whenever humans started scratching messages on stone) we can interact with each other in a way that more closely parallels our nature as social primates. Our village or tribe is no longer defined by physical boundaries or locale, but by familial relations and shared experiences. Many Facebookers have Facebook friends from the other side of the globe and exchange chunks of information as easily those living a short drive away from each other. Our “tribes” intermingle and overlap each other.
The wild success of social media is not due, therefore, to a clever application of technology. It is more due to technology becoming more closely in tune with our humanity. Facebook was designed primarily as a way for college students to keep track of each other. Humanity discovered it and now approximately 300 million people are on board. Twitter works the way we think, in small nuggets of info. It allows single thoughts to be shared instantly. Self-published blogs allow anyone to share thoughts and experiences on a regular basis to a global audience.
So here is the wake-up call for those that use communications technology for commercial purposes. Technology is allowing us to interact with each other at a more human level, in ways which reflect our social, tribal selves. Humans want to engage (and be engaged) with business at a human level. Many businesses go to great lengths to promote “customer service”, training staff to be more helpful, being open longer hours, etc. But your human customers are now accustomed to interacting in human and social ways online. Business cannot afford to rely on standing behind a wall of corporate-speak on their web sites anymore. Those companies that engage their prospects and customers in an open, transparent manner will have the advantage. Those that understand that we, as humans, like to gather and share and “talk story” will jump in and become part of the conversation. It’s a bit scary at times and the “message” can’t always be controlled. But in the end, the company is recognized as its own tribe, whose circles intersect with those of other tribes.
It becomes part of the human community.
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