Societal Shift in Communication and Liberty University

Mar 1st, 2009 Written By Cheryl Smith

Social Media isn’t just a fad, embraced by a few early adapters from Gen X or Gen Y or techno geeks from Silicon Valley. Instead, it is a fundamental change in the way people communicate. Here’s a brief explanation and a timely, relevant (and simple) illustration.

Communication Changes
For thousands of years, society communicated through the use stories. People received their news directly from the mouths of others. If you wanted to learn a new skill or discover historical information, you did so through the stories of others.

In the 1400′s, Gutenberg’s press made the Bible accessible to more people than ever before. Eventually communication avenues broadened to include all sorts of printed materials, from Bibles, books, newspapers, magazines and newsletters. This continued for hundreds of years.

In the mid-1900′s, society experienced another significant shift in communication. Television and radio broadcasted information to the masses like never before. Literacy was no longer a requirement.

Today we have experienced yet another shift. We’ve moved from a broadcast society to a digital society thanks to the power of the Internet. Information is now available at the click of a mouse. Content is now published by the masses for the masses.

Social Media, Paper and Conversation
In a print society, paper and ink were the tools that made communication possible. Today, social media provides those tools. Interestingly, this evening a quick comment by a friend on Facebook offers a powerful illustration.
luschoolclosing

Liberty University’s Chancellor/President, Jerry Falwell, Jr. made a comment. He shared a thought, a piece of information. But he did far more than that. He started a conversation. For the first time in history, society now has the opportunity to receive information AND participate in the conversation.
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In less than three hours, Falwell (who has 3,514 Facebook friends) received 33 follow up comments. I expect that number to grow proportionately with the amount of tonight’s snow accumulation.

So What About You?
Are you ready for the “new” shift in communication? How are you seeing this shift in organizations you’re a part of? Is your business embracing social media to not only share information with others, but facilitate conversation? Share your feedback in the comments section.

http://statesmen.blogspot.com/ Nick

Fascinating article! Thanks for sharing your insight!
http://www.shrinkingthecamel.com Bradley J. Moore

It’s hard to believe sometimes. I just read an interview with Marc Andreesen (it’s featured at insidework.net today) who basically says the internet communication model is here to stay – like, forever. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube are all long-term models for re-creating the way the world communicates and connects. I, hoever, have not yet plunged into facebook or twitter. (although I’ve got the blog thang going on). I guess I’m a late-late adapter.
Thanks for the interesting post!
http://www.wiselywoven.com Jason Fowler

Hi Cheryl, great post! It’s funny, I just wrote a post over at Social Media River relating the social media revolution to the societal shift that Gutenberg’s press helped begin. Check out the article, my topic deals with the digital divide and how rural America is being left in the digital dust:

http://socialmediariver.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-rural-revolutionor-a
http://Url Kevin Giedd

Want to put orality, literacy, narration, and social media in a proper perspective? Put together a panel of experts who have been on the cutting edge of both ends of the spectrum, and have a diverse perspective. Experts on how these topics relate to Christian communication include James (Jim) Slack, J.O. Terry, Grant Lovejoy, Mark Snowden, A. Steven Evans, Daniel (Dan) Henrich, and a representative from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, possibly an administrator, anthropologist, or professor of the SIL Literacy Megacourse. Social media may cause us to reflect on the orality vs. literacy contrast, and see that another consideration is real-time communication vs. static-time communication, etc.

I submit to the experts listed above.
http://Url Kevin Giedd

Social media is a real-time, digital, multi-media form of mass communication. One characteristic of the communication style of primary oral learners (who may be illiterate) is that communication happens face-to-face, and is therefore real-time and audience-specific. Social media is also real-time. Speaking of real time, right now the majority of the world’s population, and even the majority of Americans, can still be considered primary oral learners (as defined by Jim Slack), even though an increasing percentage of them may be quite literate as well.
http://josephalexcooper.blogspot.com/ Alex Cooper

This is so true. The same exact thing with Falwell happened this winter also. He cancelled school essentially through Facebook and I was at the basketball game when or right after he did so. The pep band yelled to the other side of the arena “thank you Jerry” and I heard the dining hall was erupting in praise because of the Facebook news. Jerry has nearly 5,000 Facebook friends now.

What I Really wanted to say was how much businesses have embraced social media. Pretty much every major company has a Facebook or Twitter or both. Even government departments have Twitters to spread news. What will be interesting to see is how the social media integrates into the mobile age of smart phones. Real-time updates from the masses for the masses to the individual 24/7.

http://www.culturesmithconsulting.com/news cherylsmith

Alex,

There's no question social media is game changing and you're wise to ponder how smart phones will be included. It'll be interesting to watch it all play out!

bradleyjmoore

My company bans all use of social media because of security threats. I had convinced the execs that a few of us (including me, of course) should have access to Blogs and other such sites to keep up with our industry. Six months later IT shuts it all down because of security issues and an uptick in viral activity. Oh well.

http://www.culturesmithconsulting.com/news cherylsmith

Bradley,

Sounds like someone's thrown the baby out with the bath water. I know that social media presents some challenges for IT departments, but a complete ban sounds a little extreme to me. Imagine if operations/facilities people completely shut down phone service, or faxes, or email.

Companies should have policies in place and trust that when they hire good folks, most of the concerns can be adequately managed.

Oh well, indeed.

Ben

Communication is the essence of relationships. It always a good thing when people feel that those who lead them can understand what they are feeling and saying.

Societal Shift in Communication and Liberty University

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