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A Reflection on Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody
- 1. A Public Relations Student’s reflection on how technology is shaping society as chronicled by Clay Shirky. MeShae Hankerson Georgia Southern University
- 3. It takes a village… … to find a phone.
- 4. A community is like a beehive.
- 5. Are history and tradition really gone? “When we change the way we communicate, we change society.” -page 17, Here Comes Everybody
- 6. Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself!
- 7. Thank you for your time! Contact ME on… Twitter: @GotMeeSH FaceBook: MeShae Hankerson WordPress: www. meshae/wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
- Hello, my name is MeShae Hankerson and I am a senior Public Relations major at Georgia Southern University.This presentation is just a brief reflection on how technology is shaping society as chronicled by Clay Shirky in his book Here Comes Everybody.
- Writer, consultant, and professor Clay Shirky has been an Internet enthusiast for over a decade. In fact, Shirky has been writing about the Internet since 1996. A Yale University graduate, Shirky began life after college as a theater director and designer in New York.He is currently a professor at NYU, where he teaches the Interactive Telecommunications graduate program. Shirky also serves as an Internet and web-browsing consultant for organizations, like Nokia, the United States Library of Congress and the BBC.Since graduating, he has authored a number of books and has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Harvard Business Review. Shirky is the author of Here Comes Everybody, as well as The Internet by E-Mail, Voices from the Net, P2P Networking Overview, Planning for Web Services: Obstacles and Opportunities, and The Best Software Writing I. He also makes appearances at communications seminars and conferences all over the country.
- So I’m sure you’re wondering why it takes a village to find a phone, but Shirky’s opening to Here Comes Everybody shows the real power that new technologies have given us as communicators. He tells the story of a lost T-Mobile Sidekick and how millions of strangers came together via the Internet to retrieve it in the Big Apple. And that’s just the beginning… The book itself takes an in-depth look at how communication has not only evolved, but how it has altered our society as a whole. The Internet has truly changed life as we once knew it and isn’t done yet. We now have the power to “rally the troops” without actually having to recruit or even rally for that matter. As social networking sites like Twitter and FaceBook encourage the congregation of people, the power and capabilities of modern technologies increase. Search engines like Google and Bing allow you to look up information on people, places and things with the click of a mouse. No longer do we have to count on news outlets like CNN and MSNBC because in today’s technologically-advanced world, each individual is a media outlet.
- From the beginning of time, the human race has found power in group action, but Shirky’s reflection on the concept brings a more modern view.On page 14 of Here Comes Everybody, Shirky writes, “Society is not just the product of its individual members; it is also the product of its consistent groups.”This goes back to that old saying, “there is power in numbers.” With the increase in accessibility to technology, our society has become a global community. Shirky compares that global community to a beehive. Bees live and co-exist in beehives that they as a community build and maintain. Like bees, humans have begun to build more advanced technologies and create environments that each member of society can experience.Whether we realize it or not, we put ourselves into groups. Those groups could be based on religion, ethnicity, background or even something as simple as the type of car you own. Most of us even belong to several groups…groups that link us to total strangers….groups that allow us to identify with people we may have never seen or heard of. However, because we belong to these groups, we are more apt to help and assist if our environments are threatened.
- In the book, Shirky raises several good points that piqued my interest a little. Are history and tradition really gone?As our world changes, are we destroying what our ancestors built?As Shirky states on page 17, “When we change the way we communicate, we change society.” Tradition faces competition in today’s world. It is up to us, as communicators and members of society to make the world a better place, but to also preserve history and tradition.I think it would be interesting to explore just how deep technology has cut the roots of tradition. I’m sure a talk with my grandparents would be a great start.
- I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Here Comes Everybody and would encourage other students, not just communications students to read it. As we all know, new technologies are unavoidable and it is important that we understand their power and effects on our lives. The book opened my eyes to a lot of issues I had never really thought about. Shirky doesn’t just talk about group action, but also the breakdown of the traditional managerial structure and the today’s “news.” So, this really leaves you no choice. Go read the book. I promise it’s worth it.
- I want to thank you for your time! Feel free to contact me via Twitter. My username is @GotMeeSH. You can also look me up on FaceBook, where my username is MeShae Hankerson. Please check out this presentation and other posts on my blog at www.meshae.wordpress.com.Thanks again!