The Global Sociology Blog

So, Chad Gesser posts this and I watch it,

The Sociology Blog: Did You Know 4.0 via kwout

And as usual, I have a few problems with this.

First, I must have missed 3.0 because the last time I checked, I thought we were at 2.0, but that’s just me.

Then, I have the usual issues with techno-enthusiasm:

1. the emphasis on numbers and quantity. This might give the illusion of mass spread and diffusion but there is still a major digital divide both within and between societies. These little videos are neat but they completely ignore those kinds of issues.

2. Quantity is not quality… actually, the video does mention that one regarding the volume of spam. Incidentally, I found this on the day that Facebook announced it had reached 300 million users and was now generating profits. But in Facebook, Twitter or MySpace, how many “dead” or inactive accounts?

3. Which leads to the question of what do people REALLY do on social networking sites? A lot of people ARE active, no doubt about that (including yours truly) but how do people exactly use social networking technologies? We can quantify as much as we want, but that leaves out answers to that important question.

4. The revolution might be twittered but its crushing will not. As the video mentioned, everybody got all excited about Twitter and the Iranian protests… and then Michael Jackson died and that was it. Hey, whatever happened to that Iran stuff? How did all this work out for the protesters? How many people who twittered know what is going on now? Sorry folks, political repression is as effective as ever, Twitter notwithstanding.

5. In other words, as enthusiastic as we might be about these technologies (and they certainly can be useful), they do not significantly change the distribution of power and wealth in society. They do not rock the boat all that much. They increase the social capital of those who already are relatively privileged (digital divide again).

Bottom line: let’s not get carried away. The folks who have won the battle of shaping the health care discourse are those who showed up at town halls, not those who twittered and blogged about how nasty these people were.