Social media can be a life saver, but the flip side is a sinister world that will cause a social implosion of our own making. What can we do to prevent it?
Have you seen the documentary The Social Dilemma recently on Netflix? Once I saw this powerful and disturbing message, I went searching further. I very quickly discovered The Dissenters podcast and their interview with Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr, which added meat to the bone. Her TED Talk opens up a hornet's nest, right in the laps of the people causing the problem.
What the documentary reveals
In a nutshell, by using social media we are allowing ourselves to become saleable products and are being manipulated to orchestrate our world for the minority who couldn't care less for the majority. We are constantly being led by the addictive qualities of the demon that is taking over our lives, social media.
The people in the film were all heavily involved at very senior levels during the heyday and yet one by one left the jobs that they were proud of because of the sinister direction that the platforms were taking, without any responsibility being taken by the people at the top.
Interestingly, none of the top people in these industries allow their children access to smart technology.
We all need to be aware that advertising has been totally personalised, to the extent that false information can, and probably has already been, fed to us to influence our actions, whether that be voting or taking to the streets in protest. These adverts then disappear. We assume everyone has had them, but apparently not. This false information affects not only people's livelihoods but also huge swathes of populations being ethnically cleansed. The potential for global domination is here.
What Collaboration Global does about it
Part of our organisation is about coming together to discover information like this, not to take it at face value, but to research, discuss and consider how it might affect us and what we might be able to do about it. We duly spent our monthly Evolve session considering the future potential for our society in light of this information.
This could be a very depressing conversation. Indeed, when asked, the founder of Pinterest believed civil war was the expected outcome, unless we do something about it. No one in the film offered the solution, they seem to be waiting for those at the top to find a conscience and take action.
At Collaboration Global our culture is solution focused. Being part of a community means we do not consider this as a fait accompli or that we are defenceless to do anything about it.
“Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”, Margaret Mead
Like no other time we are more connected through social media and yet, due to the global pandemic, it is concurrently one of the most isolating times in history. We identify that being part of a nurturing community is essential to good mental health. At Collaboration Global we work together to help each other and facilitate personal, emotional, physical, and spiritual growth, ensuring we are practising a culture based on love, connection and abundance. A world away from much of social media that promotes fear, scarcity and competition.
We don't always know the solutions to our world's challenges, but by creating awareness and being proactive to bring these topics to the front of people's thinking we can be ready to mobilise and provide peaceful solutions. Would you like to be part of the solution?