Year: 1974.
Would-be Mayor of New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was feeling fidgety that night. He had clearly noticed the attention he got from that pretty woman earlier that evening in the party. He thought he had do something to show that he liked her too. But his wife?
Ok, something must be done surreptitiously. Weiner took out his Polaroid camera from the shelf and decided that he’ll shoot a pic of his <you know what – it’s all over the internet>. The print came out rather well…Weiner was impressed with himself.
He took an envelope and addressed it to the girl he had seen earlier…he was smart enough to get her name and address from his secretary immediately after he left the party!
***
Year: 1989.
Amit Jadhav was livid. How dare that deputy Chief Minister make such remarks against his beloved leader? It just wasn’t right, he thought.
Something must be done, but what?
Just then, Amit had a brainwave. He shouted to his mom hurriedly that he was going out to meet a friend and ran to the printing press owned by one of his friends.
The press was closed, but he knew how to enter it through the backdoor entry that he was told once. Of course, his friend was working inside the press as he entered it.
Amit shared his plan with his friend – he wanted to design a poster which had the deputy chief minister’s photo with the face blackened. His plan was to print 500 copies of the poster and put it up all over Pune.
He thought, let us show what we are made of!
***
Year: 2001.
Dhaval Valia felt cheated. He had just taken a brand new mobile connection…the new thing everybody wanted but was too prohibitively expensive. He had got it after a lot of though, but the connectivity was predominantly spotty. The service provider’s SLA clearly said that it would work across the city.
Having tried the connection for a few days, Dhaval was hardly impressed. It wasn’t fair at all…since he had paid a huge amount as deposit to acquire this connection!
Something must be done, he thought. But what?
He got an idea, almost instantly. Yes, that’s the right way, he though. His plan was to call 10 of his closest friends who and warn them about how bad this service provider’s service was. At least they would be saved of all this hassle, he assumed.
He used his land line and called them one by one and shared the contact numbers of senior officials from the service provider saying that if they faced any issues with the connection, they may call these number and ask them why their SLAs are not honored. He was very happy with himself – he was helping his friends and also giving a taste of the service provider’s own medicine to their senior officials!
***
So, you noticed the year before each incident, right? Yes, that is the key. People could act this way long before social media existed. They could use tools available at that time and do the same thing that they ended up doing this year, using social media tools. But, as you notice, it was a bit cumbersome. You needed a Polaroid to display your umm…that…to the person of your choice. If you did it with a normal camera, you had to get it developed and that involves a risk of the photo studio guys seeing your umm…that! Much like what happened with George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld in this episode of Seinfeld.
Amit’s case is even more difficult. This is what people used to do to create a frenzy against the British government, during the pre-independence days! And those posters are going fully public – the world will watch them and it was obvious that the deputy chief minister was adequately annoyed…enough to file a defamation suit against Amit.
In Dhaval’s case, he chose a more private route to alert his friends. Seems fair, but he did not count on this private communication going public at all!
Now, I do agree with Jason Falls when he says this, in his post.
Social media had nothing â?¦ let me repeat â?¦ SOCIAL MEDIA HAD NOTHING TO DO with Anthony Weinerâ??s screw up. The blame for Anthony Weinerâ??s screw up lies in one place and one place only: Anthony Weiner. He could have texted the picture, emailed the picture, blown it up a Kinkoâ??s and mailed it â?¦ the medium is not the culprit. The culprit is.
As with marketing, Twitter is not what makes people love your brand. Neither is Facebook or blogs. The messages you send. The value you provide. The connections you facilitate and the relationships you nurture â?¦ thatâ??s what makes people love you.
The only tool to blame in the Anthony Weiner case is Anthony Weiner.
But, there is most definitely another angle to this blame game. The fact that things are far, far, far more easy to do. You don’t need a Polaroid camera. You don’t need to know friends who owned printing presses. You do not need to call up friends one by one. All you needed was one single smartphone with decent internet connectivity. That alone can let you do all that is explained above in a long sequence!
Is that ease worth blaming? Perhaps not. But there’s no denying that people haven’t fully figured out that this ease comes with threats that is nothing new. These threats existed long before things become this easy. And the process if explained the way they may happen in earlier years, look so obviously wrong and stupid.
It is strange that they don’t look that wrong and stupid when the tool to achieve those things became just a single smartphone and seemed terribly easy – click of a button, literally. So, while we still cannot blame social media for ‘letting these people do the things that they did’, it is worth noting that the ease with which you do these and the relative time and effort that it takes (which is almost nothing!) perhaps creates an illusion that what was once believed to be bizarrely stupid and illegal, may actually go public and hence put all the people behind such acts into complete jeopardy!
In some way, it is much like the first time people started owning personal firearms. People knew these devices killed people, but they still were stupid enough to use it on people during a weak moment. After enough incidents like those, people knew better and gradually tried to not let those weak moments take over their emotions and the use of these tools.
Year: 1974.
Would-be Mayor of New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was feeling fidgety that night. He had clearly noticed the attention he got from that pretty woman earlier
that evening in the party. He thought he had do something to show that he liked her too. But his wife?
Ok, something must be done surreptitiously. Weiner took out his Polaroid camera from the shelf and decided that he’ll shoot a pic of his <you know what –
it’s all over the internet>. The print came out rather well…Weiner was impressed with himself.
He took an envelope and addressed it to the girl he had seen earlier…he was smart enough to get her name and address from his secretary immediately after
he left the party!
***
Year: 1989.
Amit Jadhav was livid. How dare that deputy Cheif Minister make such remarks against his beloved leader? It just wasn’t right, he thought.
Something must be done, but what?
Just then, Amit had a brainwave. He shouted to his mom hurriedly that he was going out to meet a friend and ran to his the printing press owned by one of his
friends.
The press was closed, but he knew how to enter it through the backdoor entry that he was told once. Of course, his friend was working inside the press as he
entered it.
Amit shared his plan with his friend – he wanted to design a poster which had the deputy chief minister’s photo with the face blackened. His plan was to
print 500 copies of the poster and put it up all over Pune.
He thought, let us show what we are made of!
***
Year: 2001.
Dhaval Valia felt cheated. He had just taken a brand new mobile connection…the new thing everybody wanted but was too prohibitively expensive. He had got
it after a lot of though, but the connectivity was predominantly spotty. The service provider’s SLA clearly said that it would work across the city.
Having tried the connection for a few days, Dhaval was hardly impressed. It wasn’t fair at all…since he had paid a huge amount as deposit to acquire this
connection!
Something must be done, he thought. But what?
He got an idea, almost instantly. Yes, that’s the right way, he though. His plan was to call 10 of his closest friends who and warn them about how bad this
service provider’s service was. At least they would be saved of all this hassle, he assumed.
He used his land line and called them one by one and shared the contact numbers of senior officials from the service provider saying that if they faced any
issues with the connection, they may call these number and ask them why their SLAs are not honored. He was very happy with himself – he was helping his
friends and also giving a taste of the service provider’s own medicine to their sernior officials!
***
So, you noticed the year, before each incident? Yes, that is the key. People could act this way long before social media existed. They could use tools
available at that time and do the same thing that they ended up doing this year, using social media tools. But, as you notice, it was a bit cumbersome. You
needed a Polaroid to display your umm…that…to the person of your choice. If you did it with a normal camera, you had to get it developed and that
involves a risk of the photo studio guys seeing your umm…that! Much like what happened with Geroge Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld in this episode of Seinfeld.
Amit’s case is even more difficult. This is what people used to do to create a frenzy against the British government, during the pre-independence days! And
those posters are going fully public – the world will watch them and it was obvious that the deputy chief minister was adequately annoyed…enough to file a
defamation suit against Amit.
In Dhaval’s case, he chose a more private route to alert his friends. Seems fair, but he did not count on this private communication going public at all!
Now, I do agree with Jason Falls when he says this, in his post.
Social media had nothing â?¦ let me repeat â?¦ SOCIAL MEDIA HAD NOTHING TO DO with Anthony Weinerâ??s screw up. The blame for Anthony Weinerâ??s screw up lies in one
place and one place only: Anthony Weiner. He could have texted the picture, emailed the picture, blown it up a Kinkoâ??s and mailed it â?¦ the medium is not the
culprit. The culprit is.
As with marketing, Twitter is not what makes people love your brand. Neither is Facebook or blogs. The messages you send. The value you provide. The
connections you facilitate and the relationships you nurture â?¦ thatâ??s what makes people love you.
The only tool to blame in the Anthony Weiner case is Anthony Weiner.
But, there is most definitely another angle to this blame game. The fact that things are far, far, far more easy to do. You don’t need a Polaroid camera. You
don’t need to know friends who owned printing presses. You do not need to call up friends one by one. All you needed was one single smartphone with decent
internet connectivity. That alone can let you do all that is explained above in a long sequence!
Is that ease worth blaming? Perhaps not. But there’s no denying that people haven’t fully figured out that this ease comes with threats that is nothing new.
These threats existed long before things become this easy. And the process is explained the way they may happen in earlier years, they look so obviously
stupid.
It is strange that they don’t look that stupid when the tool to achieve those things became just a single smartphone and seemed terribly easy – click of a
button, literally. So, while we still cannot blame social media for ‘letting these people do the things that they did’, it is worth noting that the ease with
which you do these and the relative time and effort that it takes (which is almost nothing!) perhaps creates an illusion that what was once believed to be
bizarrely stupid and illegal, may actually go public and hence put all the people behind such acts into complete jeopardy! In some way, it is much like the
first time people started owning personal firearms. People knew these devices killed people, but they still were stupid enough to use it on people during a
weak moment. After enough incidents like those, people knew better and gradually tried to not let those weak moments take over their emotions and the use of
these tools.