Here Comes Everybody - book post

In reading Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, I was able to identify with many of the themes presented.  One theme that stuck out to me was that there are different levels of awareness in a society.  This reminded me of an article we read earlier in the semester, but Shirky limits the concept to three level: "when everybody knows something, when everybody knows that everybody knows, and when everybody knows that everybody knows that everybody knows" (Shirky).  He applied this concept to East Germany in the late 1900s.  When the whole society knew that everyone was aware of the social unrest, mass public demonstrations arose and brought an end to the regime.  When the government resigned, the people brought Berlin Wall to the ground.  Applying this to a modern online community, what walls are there that we can tear down?  This is a hard question for to answer.  There are so many voices on the internet, each expressing its own opinion for a given matter.  While many of these can be grouped into similar categories, it is often difficult to determine which side is correct.  Therefore, it is practically impossible to define a wall on a particular issue and determine how it is to be handled.  It is very hard to solve social problems on the internet.  While the internet can help people to be exposed to foreign ideas, it also has great potential to damage relationships and cause negative impressions.  Thus, I believe that we must be careful in the way we use social media to attempt to solve social issues.

Shirky, Clay.  Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations.  New YorkL Penguin, 2008.  163.  Print.