[img]1922|right|Mr. Hibbard||no_popup[/img]Never before in history have six out of seven people on the planet owned a hand-held electronic device that connects them to each other around the world. I think it is a little early in the game to predict how that is going to change the human narrative. If what we have witnessed so far is ay indicator, though, it is going to be a wild ride as the oppressed push back against the oppressors. The pushback party is just starting. Hold onto your smart phone, and stay tuned as the story unravels.
An unemployed man in Tunisia is so tired of being oppressed he sets himself on fire. How is that for being an actor? That single act sparked a social media revolution that spilled into streets across the Middle East. They didn’t take guns into the streets. They took their cell phones. They shot videos, not bullets, as the world watched the beginning of the Arab Uprising. They went from spectators to actors. They changed the way the story gets told.
The “shot that is heard around the world “ metaphor has been replaced by the “Retweet” metaphor.
Anyone notice the media blackout last week during the March Against Monsanto. I guess that is the whole idea behind a blackout. The corporate mainstream media doesn’t want you to know that two million “actors” marched in 50 countries to get the giant food bully out of our kitchen pantries.
It doesn’t matter though. They are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the face of the alternative new media as more of us turn from spectator to actor.
Technology is creating global convergence. And it is just about cell phones. According to the International Monetary Fund: “Technology also allows people to cross borders in greater numbers. In 1950, barely 25 million people traveled internationally. By 2020, that figure is expected to reach 1.6 billion. In short, 1 in 5 inhabitants of planet earth will cross an international boundary—a previously unthinkable level of connection.”
We are just at the cusp of a Third Wave of technology. Before we all pack our bags to move to the Global Village, we have to clean up our act a little. While Facebook hits the billion active user mark, it is important to remember that one billion people, the Bottom Billion who live alongside of us in the Global Village, do not have proper sanitation and live in abject poverty. No doubt emerging technologies are changing the world. Each of us must ask himself or herself, will we be an actor or a spectator?
Mr. Hibbard may be contacted at artbymykel@yahoo.com
