Social Innovation and Change

The Social Media Age A social change that I have experienced is the arrival of the Digital and Information Age, which has led to a revolution in the way people communication, obtain knowledge, and engage with ideas. Mainly the big change is the arrival of social media which has made everything private suddenly public. There is no more line between a private life and a public life. Everything is blurred together.

People are less genuine and more interested in building their “brand” than in actually being human—because, after all, being human does not necessarily get one a million subscribers on YouTube.

As Olsen (2013) notes, everything is “leading to a world that feels less personal, less polite and less human.” So while there have definitely been some good points about the Digital Era and the Information Age—such as the ability to now share information more easily than ever before, to obtain news one could not before, and to connect with people in seconds from anywhere in the world—there are negatives, too: as DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman and Robinson (2001) point out, social media tends to erect a real social wall between people and those around them while they pretend to have friendships online.

The reality is displaced for the virtual. This is a negative because the reality is where social interaction needs to take place. The virtual is just fantasy while one sits in one’s room alone. True, the virtual world can lead to connections in the real world and facilitate organization—but this is not always the outcome—and sometimes the intense focus on social media can lead to negative outcomes for the individuals who fail to find online friendships fulfilling.

For example, high school girl Sladjana Vidovic took her own life after being bullied incessantly online (Barr, 2010). So, yes, social change has come via the Internet—with both good and bad points. My own life has improved thanks to the Digital Age, I have to say. I am not actively involved on social media, however. I prefer real interactions with real people in face-to-face settings. I use my phone for work and texting and phone calls, but I do not use to obsessively get on social media.

So I typically have my head up and am on the lookout for a friend to say hello to wherever I go. For the rest of society, I would have to say it is a toss-up.

The satirists behind South Park recently did an episode entitled “Buddha Box” in which the population of South Park has anxiety because they just want to spend time with their phones and life (i.e., people) keep distracting them and upsetting them—so they all put what are essentially boxes over their heads that enable them to see their phone screen while they hold their phones in their hands. The boxes block out everything else except their phone.

It essentially captures what has happened among a lot of young people: they all want to block out the real world via their mobile phones. So that is a huge negative. The one upside to it all, in the show, was that the new family that feared being ostracized for not being politically correct, was freer to act as a family and have fun since the whole town was no walking around with a big box over its head not paying any attention.

So maybe traditional families will feel more empowered to get out into reality—who can say? China China’s Social Credit System is a social change that allows the Chinese government to give each citizen a credit score based on their behavior. If the citizen has a bad social credit score, that person will be denied basic rights like being able to fly (Werth, 2018).

Because China is a totalitarian state with its president having written his name into the Constitution, there is not a whole lot its citizens can do to protest this new social change. The goal of the system is to promote behavior that aligns with what the state expects from people. As Werth (2018) notes, “if you’re the kind of person who volunteers or donates blood, you’ll be awarded credit points.

If you’re getting speeding tickets, charging “under-the-table” fees, posting “fake news” online, smoking in non-smoking zones, or buying too many video games, you’ll be punished.

The government is analyzing you based on how you act on buses, how you drive, and how customers of your business rate you.” Globalization has played a part in his change because China is basically responding to rising nationalist movements in other parts of the world, particularly in the West and wants to preempt anything like that in China.

So far no other society has announced plans to follow in China’s footsteps—but I doubt that it will be long before Western nations also introduce the Social Credit System as it is a good means of controlling people and their behavior. Tech Advancement One technological advancement that is being developed right now is electronic vehicle (EV) by car manufacturer Tesla as well as by others. This is innovative because it could potentially change the way we think about fuel, energy and sustainability.

It could spur social change by prompting people to be more mindful about the environment, how they consume energy, and the types of products they buy—i.e., green products over non-environmentally friendly products. This technology could change the cultural norms in a big way. People’s lives are almost entirely shaped around oil—jobs, products, food, transportation, energy—it all is associated with oil.

With the EV and a green energy structure (wind, solar, etc.) to power the grid, our culture could become incredibly different in its orientation to the environment. We could become less consumerist and less focused on consumption and more focused on growing our own gardens, getting back to the earth and becoming a simple, agrarian society again.

I believe the potential social change could be positive overall because I think society now is far too materialistic and disconnected from the real world—and getting back to nature and exercising a sustainable culture could be just what is needed. How Tech Can be Positive and Negative Studying society has evolved in response to social changes in media—especially social media, which allows people to share information more easily.

So for instance, information about human rights and ethics is more readily available: more information can be found online about the Israel-Palestine conflict; more information can be found.