Only on the internet could all three of the things in the title make sense. But it doesn’t undermine how amazing the internet truly is.  Who would’ve though that the issue of tainted beef imports would be protested by teenage girls in South Korea, on a boy band forum of all things?  It really is a case of “only on the internet”. It’s really unbelievable that such an issue could become so important, especially among that demographic. Furthermore, it sheds a light on a truth of the 21st century; if there is an issue (small or large) in one part of the world, chances are everyone else will find out thanks to the web.  This is because in the past decade we’ve seen an explosion in the way people can share and create content.  The barriers to produce content, namely cost and exposure, have largely disappeared.  You or I can go online, write something, and publish it with the click of one button…like I will be doing at the end of this post.

Unfortunately, the downside is that the quality of the content has taken a bit of a nosedive, and this is an issue of contention for me.  In my opinion, much of what is on the internet has become “fluff”.  If you look at Facebook and Twitter, the vast majority of “amateur content” is people posting, or tweeting frivolous things.  And rightfully so, it is within their right to express themselves in whatever way they please.  However, I feel like that effort could be better spent creating what Shirky referred to as “civic” value.

If every one of us with access to social media took time out of our day to, post, tweet, or comment on something important in our community or around the world we could possibly effect serious change; regardless of whether that issue has any intrinsic value to us.  This isn’t to say that it hasn’t already been done, look at KONY 2012.  Yet, what happened to it now?  The issues still remain, but it seems among most social media platforms it has started to lose some steam.  There is no lasting effort to make sure that an issue remains relevant, and yet the tools are there to make sure it does.  If we attempt to affect serious change we need to make sure it lasts.  We’ve seen it can be accomplished in South Korea, and around the world, just look at the “Arab Spring”.

The reason I bring attention to this is because we are truly a global society.  What happens around the world affects us in one way or another.  So even if the issue doesn’t have a direct impact on us, that shouldn’t undermine the importance of it in the grand scheme of thing.  We have the tools to express our opinions and collaborate with others, lets use them to bring about serious, lasting change.  Strangely, I suppose what I’m really saying is that we could all learn a thing or two from South Korean teenage girls.