Commentary

When Technology Makes Us Better People

I’m always quick to point out the darker sides of technology. So, to be fair, I should also give credit where credit is due. That’s what today’s column is about.

Technology, we collectively owe you one. Why? Because without you, we wouldn’t be slowly chipping away at the massive issue of sexual predation. #Metoo couldn’t have happened without you.

I’ve talked before about Mark Granovetter’s threshold mode lof crowd behavior. In the past, I’ve used it to explain how it can tip collective behavior toward the negative, turning crowds into mobs. But it can also work the other way, turning crowds into movements.

Either way, the threshold model depends on connection -- and technology makes that connecting possible. What’s more, it makes it possible in a very specific way that is important to understand.

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Technological connection is often ideological connection. We connect in ad hoc social networks that center around an idea. We find common ground that is not physical but conceptual. In the process, we forge new social connections that are freed from the typical constraints that introduce friction in the growth of social networks. We create links that are unrestricted by how people look, where they live, how much they earn or what church they worship at. All we need is to find resonance within ideas and we can quickly create a viral wave.

The cost of connection is reduced -- but this is no way diminishes the courage required to post the #metoo hashtag.

I have been in the digital world for almost three decades now, and in that time I have met many, many remarkable women. I hope I have judged them as fellow human beings and have treated them as equals. It has profoundly saddened me to see most of them join the #metoo movement in the past few weeks. It has been painful to learn just how pervasive the problem is and to see this light creep into a behavioral basement of which we are becoming more aware. But it is oh-so-necessary.

And I must believe that technology and the comfort it affords by letting you know you’re not alone has made it just a little bit easier to type those six characters. 

As I have always said, technology erases friction. It breaks down those sticking points that used to allow powerful individuals to exert control.  Control is needed to maintain those circles of complicity that allows the Harvey Weinsteins of the world to prey on others.  But with technology, all we need is one little crack in that circle to set in motion a chain reaction that blasts it apart.

I believe that the Weinstein example will represent a sea-change moment in how our society views sexual predation. These behaviors are always part of a power game. For it to continue to exist,  perpetrators must believe in their own power and their ability to maintain it. Once the power goes, so does the predation. #

Metoo has shown that your power can disappear immediately and permanently if you get publicly tagged. “If it happened to Harvey, it could happen to me” may become the new cautionary tale.

But I hope it’s not just the fear of being caught that pushes us to be better. I also hope that we have learned that it’s not okay to tolerate this. In the incredibly raw and honest post of screenwriter Scott Rosenberg, we had our worst fears confirmed: “Everybody f---ing knew!”

And everybody who knew is being sucked into the whirlpool of Harvey’s quickly sinking bulk. I have to believe this is tipping the balance in the right direction. We good men (and women) might be less likely to do nothing next time.

Finally, technology has made us better, whether we believe it or not. In 1961, when I was born, Weinstein’s behavior would have been accepted as normal. It would have even been considered laudable in some circles (predominately male circles -- granted).  As a father of two daughters, I am grateful that that’s not the world we live in today. The locker room mentality that allows the Harvey Weinsteins, Robert Scobles, and Donald Trumps of the world to flourish is being chipped away, #metoo post by #metoo post.

And we have technology to thank for that.

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