At a time of a tremendous amount of incredible positives and incredible negatives, mixed all along with a huge sense of urgent uncertainty as to what’s going to happen next, one cannot, but truly appreciate how the world of the Social Web is changing us as a society, never mind the corporate world altogether, making us all reflect deeply on what really matters after all. Time and time again we keep getting exposed to those wonderful gestures of our human kind that clearly highlight where we are today, but at the same time we also get strong reminders of what’s stopping us altogether from making a better world, for everyone, which could perhaps be very well explained with this single quote: “it’s like a despair, destroying this world … people who have no hopes are easy to control” [- G’mork].
I love the Internet. I truly love the Social Web. I don’t even know what I would be doing without it, if there comes a time where it does no longer exist or I don’t get exposed often enough to it. I hope that never happens. I think those of us who have been lucky enough to live through it over the last 10 years have experienced, and never better said, such a fundamental change and shift on who we are as human beings that’s almost impossible to remain indifferent. No matter what. And the most exciting thing about it is that our younger generations have been born living through it all and will eventually complete our already started work of making this world a better place for us, for them, for everyone.
I heart social networking. I always have. Ever since I first got exposed to it back in 2001 I always felt it was going to help manage get the best out of all of us, human beings, so that we could go and create and do better things for those around us, and for the world at large. And I think I may have just witnessed one of the most inspiring confirmations of that inner urge that technology, when used right, could help us become better at what we already excel at: getting the good out of all of us and put it into practice. Good practice.
Earlier on today, and through one of my network(s), I bumped into this absolutely stunning, witty, smart, incredibly inspirational, thought provoking and rather moving dissertation by Dr. Pamela Gay at the recent TAM 2012 event (The Amazing Meeting 2012) under this delightful title: “Make the World Better (Ask If Anyone Minds Later)“. It’s a presentation that lasts for a little bit over 36 minutes, but I can certainly guarantee you that it’s worth while every single minute of it. It’s fully packed with lots of rather thought provoking messages and plenty of calls to action on how the world of social media, and science, for that matter, are changing and shifting certain things that we have learned to take for granted as part of a rather sickening status quo that perhaps, almost certainly, has got its days numbered, because it no longer represents how our world works or should work to become a better place for everyone! Some sort of a call to action into what I would quote as “The Awakening (2.0)” (Sorry, I know, I couldn’t help using the 2.0 moniker), which I already hinted a little while ago on this blog entry as well.
Today’s blog post is going to be a short one. I would rather prefer you spend the time going through Pamela’s presentation to see what I mean with no longer being capable of remaining indifferent with everything that happens around you. Even more so that I originally had another idea and trend of thought for today’s blog post, but after watching her speech I though it was just too good to let it go by just like that. Why? Well, basically, for plenty of different reasons that I am sure you would be agreeing with as well if you have been reading this blog for a while, but mainly because of this particular quote from her:
“Imagine a world in which all the time, all the energy, all the bandwidth that currently goes into cyberbulling and trolling, instead goes into building good things; goes into doing science, goes into education […] Find what you are passionate about and build that thing” [Emphasis mine]
Or maybe, because of these other rather inspiring quotes that Pamela herself brilliantly used throughout her presentation that have certainly made me think about the inner power we all have and that it’s probably a good time now that it, finally, comes out. To quote her: “We can be the better example”, “We do need to fight to build a better world”, “Be the change you want to see in the world… well, damn it, be the change by doing something!“
Well, with all of that said, and without much further ado, here’s the embedded code of the YouTube video, so you can hit Play, watch and listen to Pamela and be prepared to learn how you, too, no matter what, no matter how, no matter when, can change the world. Our world:
Starting today!
