Social Media, Information Poverty and Sworn Sisters

Quick, quick, can you name all the media sites, through which you or an organization can connect to others and share content?  Here is a little cheat sheet: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr, Vine, LinkedIn, RenRen, QQ, Sina, etc.  Most likely, we all have used at least one of these social media sites to connect with others in order to share an organization's profile (product placement) or our own profile ("self placement"). The world seems to have become smaller, friends and family closer, the global population more informed and opinionated.  We use logos and symbols to share our deepest beliefs and embrace cyberspace as a medium of self-expression.  Events are easily marketed through social media, online fundraising is casting a wider net and privacy issues are challenged with every click.  We experience a sense of information overload or an urge to always be up to date, being connected, not able to be without any electronic device feeding us the latest news.

Part of the reason for this permanent urge to connect is the speed at which information is disseminated. Information is knowledge.  Knowledge is power. Just imagine for a moment that the Ebola virus ravages through your immediate region: emergency notifications would be reaching you within seconds because we have signed up to receive them through respective infrastructure channels. You would be able to search the CDC website for precautions; schools and office closings would follow and supermarkets would experience a rush for basic non perishable food items.  Not so in West Africa, where the epidemic has a grip on several countries. City residents might have access to some news coverage, but rural areas are so remote and off the grid, that it is not a choice to be offline, but rather a sad and devastating reality. The global inequality of access to the internet becomes very apparent in situations like this, resulting in a different type of poverty, in "information poverty". Instead of twitter feeds, pinterest pins and facebook posts, handwritten warning signs on cardboard are held up by people as they are riding on pick up trucks through remote villages in order to share the information about the virus. Information is knowledge. Knowledge saves lives. How fast can we pass on information, so that more lives can be saved, more myths and beliefs about disease prevention be debunked?

All through history, mankind has always shared information that we validated as vital for someone to know. Smoke and lamp signals, hieroglyphics, individual letter printing press, pony express and pigeon airmail all served that purpose. Later on, telegraph, telephone, fax, and emails took over, so social media is just an innovative extension of sharing information. We always determined who and who is not the recipient of that information, given the premises that the recipients is literate or can decipher the message.

Secret languages, coding and cyber security are byproducts of this technological advancement. What struck me as a fascinating secret language was a "women's only" language from 19th century China, called Nu shu (translated as "women's writing"), that was not discovered until the 1960s.  This linguistic gem took the world by surprise in that it was an entirely different written language than traditional Chinese. A language invented by women for other women, the sworn sisters, as described in Lisa See's book "Snowflower and the Secret Fan".

The secret language was embroidered on handkerchiefs, hidden in weavings and painted in the folds of fan, which found their way outside the compound walls, behind which these women were living in total isolation. It is extraordinary that this language existed for hundreds of years, hidden from the eyes of men, representing a form of emancipation in a time, when women's lives were more limited that we can fathom today. And at the same time, each hidden message inside a fan or handkerchief is like a facebook post, a glimpse into a day, the description of emotions following the statement - only without the smiley face symbols and snapshots of our adorable offsprings.

With the most recent upheavals around the world, I reevaluated the need for social media. Going back to my thought in previous blogs, about the Maslow Pyramid of Needs, I feel that the use of social media greatly depends on the socioeconomic rung on the global ladder a country has reached.  The more of the basic needs are met, the more the individual uses social media for the individualistic purpose of self presentation.  The further down on the Maslow Pyramid of Needs a country finds itself, the more these sites are used to raise awareness for the political and/or economic struggles under which the population lives, a sort of cyber revolution.  Instead of cute kittens, we might see a video of a military attack.

Despite the criticism of social media, its use and applications, it is a tool for the global population to come together by choice. It is in our human nature to connect with others. Communicating with others broadens our understanding of each other, allows us to look at things from a different perspective and might even leave behind a human milestone in the historic continuum.  And if you choose not to connect, there is always the option of going offline for a while - but it remains a free choice of an individual and should be available to all. It is a part of the freedom of speech and part of self-preservation, as much as the human connection.  The next time you google, tweet or pin, appreciate the wealth of information that is available to you at your fingertip.