I’m teaching a Social Media in Action course to tenth graders this year and the first unit will be on the wisdom of crowds. So, crowd, I’m hoping you’ll help me out. What was the most significant use of social meda that you saw in the last year?
I’d appreciate it if you would take a moment to fill out this very brief form. I’d appreciate it, and so will my students!
Thanks!
Perhaps the process of “action, reaction, response” (repeat) surrounding Facebook’s privacy settings roll outs. Think about it. Thousands of people responded, some angrily, to what they saw as a change in their “neighborhood”. How many corporations in the past have reacted to that reaction with a “Hey, it’s free. Deal with it.” response? Instead a social media crowd communicated, were heard, and were answered. Change came and then… changed. Was it all for the good? Probably not, but the process was pretty impressive.
Not sure if it is a good example, but the “green revolution” that nearly occurred in Iran had a huge following in the twitterverse. I am not sure that it actually helped the popular uprising in Iran, but it certainly got a lot of people talking (and putting a green background on their twitter photo). From reading some of the tweets, it looks like the Iranian government attempted to influence the twitterverse by making as many pro-government tweets as possible.