Shirky, Part I

My personal understanding of Here Comes Everybody, Chapters 1, 3 and 5 consists of the power of group action and how easy it is to make an impact through the Internet. As Shirky elaborates on the story of losing a Sidekick, I immediately compared this group action concept with the power of convergence. "The loss and return of the Sidekick is a story about many things, but one of the themes running through the story is the power of group action, given the right tools." From my involvement in the Convergence group, one of the topics we specifically covered was the power of convergence and how groups of people can easily have a heavy impact on any situation.

This concept reminds me of a video we showed as an example regarding Mr. Splashy Pants and the power of the Reddit community. The Sidekick story is fairly similar to this because it links encompasses an individual bringing awareness of an event. Once that individual captures the attention of a group, the focus and publicity essentially creates a snowball effect. "When people care enough, they can come together and accomplish things of a scope and longevity that were previously impossible." With enough popularity, the group has the power to cause any situation to bend toward what they want, even if it involves recovering a lost Sidekick or naming a whale Mr. Splashy Pants.

Ten years ago, nothing like this would have been possible. Websites were used for retrieving information, just like a television or radio, and popular social networks did not exist. It's incredible how far we've come and how much social media and the Internet in general impacts our lives. My constant connection to friends, the Internet and email is more than just accepted by society, it is expected. However, the issue of privacy and the ease of personal publication for the world to see and share is often brought up and discussed in this book.

"It demonstrates the ways in which the information we give off about our selves, in photos and e-mails and MySpace pages and all the rest of it, has dramatically increased our social visibility and made it easier for us to find each other but also be scrutinized in public." It doesn't take a genius to realize that my age group, or rather the Net Generation, doesn't understand that what they post on the Internet is often permanent and can instantly spread on a global scale. Even in Grown Up Digital, Tapscott mentions that out of the main worrisome Net Generation traits, privacy is the most concerning because we still don't grasp the weight of this concept.

Obviously professionalism is highly valued among employers and today most applicants' Internet profiles are viewed with good reason. All it takes is one inappropriate comment, status or picture to ruin a career or even a reputation. I personally think this future problem must be learned the hard way for a lot of users and hopefully over time, others will recognize this risk and begin to value keeping some aspects of their lives private.