Making Sense of Digital Addiction

Do you admit, as I do, to an information age addiction?  We are so connected.  We can share photos and our experiences and thoughts, but we can also use it to pout, gloat, and destroy.  Our e-stuff is a tool, just like a hatchet.  A hatchet can cut down a tree or it can cut off an arm.  Digital and Social media can be awesome. In the bigger picture, they can spread news and information to millions of people instantaneously. When used correctly, our safety and well being can be enhanced, but when the dark side emerges, they have the potential to cause chaos, hurt personal business, hurt financial markets and taken to extremes, can cost lives.

At its most “personal,” we can un-friend somebody who becomes a petty pain in the butt.  At its most “business,” it can do what a missive did recently. A faked Associated Press tweet was sent out by hackers saying explosions had hit the White House and the President had been injured.   In the three minutes it was up, the S&P 500 lost 135 billion dollars in value and the Dow dropped 143 points. All was recovered, but in those three minutes money could have been manipulated in a myriad of ways. That is major and it’s not the first time.

You know what? It happens every day in a smaller way on business review sites. It can be a helpful service for consumers, but more and more it is being manipulated by rival businesses or people who just don’t like somebody.

So, in thinking big and small, what makes sense?  The beauty of digital, social media is its purity of form—its innocence. The ugly is its dark side. On the business side, we don’t need more government, but isn’t it time for smart government? The FCC used to watch over broadcasters; the FTC used to watch out for consumers. Is it time they step in and monitor this new age, all the way from the small reviewing sites that sometimes seem like old school  “protection” operations, to the big ones that could crash our information infrastructure? We need to do something without stepping on our basic rights and freedom. The “personal” is simpler. We all need to grow up and use our awesome tools more responsibly. It seems to me we need to be seriously proactive. Does that make sense?

Ed has a collection of “Making Sense” commentaries in both written and audio form on his website EdBaxterMedia.com.  He specializes in integrated marketing plans and voice work.  You can reach him ed@EdBaxterMedia.com