All media are social. But media are often used in antisocial ways. As modes of communication, media can be the basis of cooperative communication and social connectedness or they can be abused and employed as conveyances of lies, propaganda, false advertising, bullying, and other forms of manipulation and coercion.
The ways in which we use media reveal aspects of ourselves that transcend our conscious intentions. They tell us about what kind of people we are, what kind of culture we have created, how we think of ourselves, each other, and our place in the world.
While cultural paradigms can limit the potential avenues for expression, transmission, and reception of human information, we can choose to communicate in ways that further cooperation, trust, and empathy, rather than those that promote objectification and the abuse of power dynamics.
As our world becomes more and more a network of semiotic interrelationships, our mediated environment evolves toward increasing complexity and embodies our emotional intelligence as well as our lived experience.
It is more than a metaphor to say we create our reality. Our power to alter the world we inhabit, as well as the fate of the life forms within it, imposes ethical responsibilities of a higher order than we are used to contemplating.
By attending to the nature and content of our media, we may apply therapeutic paradigms, which can have a positive and healing effect upon individuals and ultimately upon our entire society. Developing a critical awareness of exactly what we are saying to each other and, more important, how we are saying it, can empower us to use media as a force for good. By examining and critiquing the many antisocial uses of mass media, we can begin to discern the outline of a truly healthy social media landscape.
The connections are already present, all around us, in the networked intelligence of our cybernetic infrastructure. We can project our hopes and dreams for a better world out into cyberspace and create a positive environment for each of us to grow and evolve together. This is the promise of the new technology. The power of conscious evolution is in our hands, at the tips of our fingers, on our keyboards and touch screens. As always, the choice is ours to make. What ideas will we share – what thoughts will we text to each other today?