How Soon Till We See a Backlash to Social Networking??

By Dennis D. McDonald

I wonder if someday -- perhaps sooner than later -- we'll see a rejection by some groups of social networking technologies that many, including me, now view as evolutionary and inevitable.

Perhaps the basis for such "movements" will be  a spreading fear of a continued loss of privacy due to increasing government or commercial surveillance. Perhaps a religion-based opposition will arise to the artificial intimacy promoted by virtual worlds and increasingly sophisticated multimedia-based social networking. Perhaps opposition will emerge to genetic screening that is used to isolate and economically discriminate against those known to harbor certain disease-related genetic characteristics. Social networking and social media, by enabling and promoting the sharing of information once thought to be personal and private, might be viewed as enablers of these scenarios.

Social, ethical, and religious movements -- even revolutions -- have a way of surprising us. There was a time, for example, when many thought that universal web access would automatically advance the cause of liberty, freedom, and democracy, perhaps even by fostering social and political revolutions. Yet we see every day how governments and terrorist movements use these same electronic tools to promote oppression and fear.

How big or influential such anti-social-networking movements might become is difficult to say. Perhaps isolated "anti technology" cults will arise that establish self-sustaining communities in remote geographic locations. Perhaps entrepreneurs will emerge who, for a fee, will gradually extricate clients from the systems and databases that now entwine them.

Throughout history we have seen other examples of social movements that resisted popular religious, medical, or scientific beliefs.  The potential rise of anti-social-networking groups, perhaps dedicated not to wholesale opposition to technology but to opposition to the sharing of identity related information, should therefore not come as a surprise.

Comments

[Troy Wason]

I just wanted to say that this piece is an excellent example of thinking outside the box. I have pondered this question many times and, often, come to a similar conclusion. Though, I'm not sure the backlash will necessarily come from organized groups opposed to social networking per se, but, perhaps, will come from social media overload itself. The individual is bombarded daily by others asking them to join this network or that. In society there will always be a negative reaction to overt solicitation to any form of group think. It is from this reaction, I believe, we will begin to see organization against the idea of social networking itself. Those with a vested interest in social media would be wise to look outside the box as Mr. McDonald has and embrace the realization that a backlash may occur sooner rather than later. Thanks for beginning the dialogue.

[Peter Turner]

Historically speaking (looking back at today), the phenomenon of social networking might be seen as simply a small part of a much greater whole. That whole is the "new means of production" designed and built just for the information and knowledge economy and without the vestiges of the old world/mass market production models.

This new means of content/product/service production is being embraced by corporations at a swift rate. Peer production and its cousins crowdsourcing and crowdfunding together with other forms of open innovation is presently folding social networking into its drive to build new products and services with customers contributing directly like never before.

They get the core reason why a person embraces these tools...to create to build value...to work with others who share your passion. Now companies are building that passion into a process for building better products and services.

Meanwhile, our non-profit world thinks social networks are for kids. They think its just Facebook or Myspace. They live in their listserv and discussion board world where how we produce value has changed a naught since time in memorial.

My bet is that those associations who continue to embrace a closed world view will try to force its members to stay in the wagon circle. Sadly, this is a recipe for self-extinction. Those who embrace open innovation methods like those above will supercharge their business models and thrive.