What are the limits of social media?
In retrospect, Evgeny Morozov’s piece on social media and repressive regimes shouldn’t have been that shocking. Every other kind of media, from print to television, has been used to reinforce tyranny at some point. But social media were supposed to be different — subverting systems, freeing information and redistributing power.
Morozov’s article points out that in too many countries, the government still has the ability to take control of the infrastructure that social media needs to thrive. Without open Web access, social networks run the risk of becoming printing presses without paper.
That got me thinking about the other limits to the influence of social media: privacy worries, intellectual property concerns, workplace regulations and the digital divide, just to name a few. While there isn’t much most of us outside of Iran can do about that country’s Web policies, we do have the power to address these other issues through advocacy, entrepreneurship and personal choice.
What other limitations do social media face? What are you doing to address these issues? Who are the social-media heroes working to improve access to social technologies?
Image credit, koun, via iStock
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Tags: government regulation, privacy, social media
Categories: Editor's Take
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Posted by Mark K. on February 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Too many communication/social media channels. There will be a consolidation in the marketing/PR industry in the coming years, just like there was in the IT industry and the financial industry during the last decade. Your “social service” better have a great value proposition/differentiator to stay relevant and successful.
Mark K.
Posted by Jesse Wilkins on February 26th, 2010 at 12:13 am
In my line of work it's compliance issues – how to prove you didn't flout a stock on FB or Twitter, how to prove that boards and commissions aren't circumventing open records laws using public or private social networks, etc. All the same regulatory compliance, FOIA, and legal discovery issues associated with paper instruments, email, and electronic records are equally at issue with social media and I think there will be a significant backlash against many of these tools the first time a subpoena for a deleted account fails.
Posted by J - Social Media on May 28th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Don't quite think that there's a limit – it's now just a matter of whether you would be able to cope with the variety and the many out there. You will need to distinguish your brand with quality, unlike with quantity.
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