There’s been a rising interest in the concept of “social media for social good.” In large part, that discussion has been focused on cause-related social good. I have a different take, related more to the greater good of humanity as a whole. To my view, the Internet, specifically social media, has the potential – and responsibility – to make the world more thoughtful and tolerant by showing people their shared common ground.
The Web's World Changing Potential
At 15 years old, I entered an essay contest where the first prize was a trip to Moscow. The subject: how to create world peace. I wrote about a board game that would pose questions about different cultures. The more you played, the more you learned about other cultures, and the less likely you’d be to want to nuke them. Voila! World peace. I ended up getting second place and a $50 savings bond. More than 20 years later, I’ve still never been to Moscow, but I haven’t given up on the belief that people around the world are fundamentally the same and share many of the same values.
Meanwhile, I’ve seen the advent of the Internet, and more recently, participated in the explosion of social media. What I’ve yet to see is for the Internet to fulfill its true potential to connect people by focusing on our common ground in the interest of growing our mutual understanding of each other. It’s certainly off to a great start - but we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Uncovering Common Ground
In each of these examples there are threads of common ground that link people together, providing a significant value and benefit to the website as well as their members. However, I believe that the benefits of discovering our common ground can extend far beyond a good product recommendation or reconnecting with high school friends.
We are sharing unprecedented amounts of personal perspective through the online platforms mentioned above, as well as on blogs and user generated content sites like Twitter, Wikipedia, and YouTube. This increased sharing, combined with the technological transparency and connectivity that the Internet provides, is exposing our points of common ground more than ever before. The stage is set for a positive change in the way we view “us” and “them.” The more we understand our common ground, the more likely we are to understand each other’s differences.
The Common Ground Paradox
Yet, a common ground paradox exists. Often, when we gather around a common interest or passion, it creates a self-reinforcing silo, resulting in resentment or hatred toward anyone with opposing viewpoints. Finding common ground within one group often blocks our ability to find it outside of that group. It’s a natural human reaction and we all do it.
If I’m passionately in favor of public option healthcare, for example, and encounter someone strongly opposed to it, I feel alienated from them simply because of their take on that issue. If all we know about someone is that they disagree with us on something we care about, it’s almost impossible not to transfer our feelings about that issue onto the person. With zero common ground, it’s easy to hate them, or at a minimum dismiss them, which can be equally divisive. Once the “us” and “them” mentality sets in, we are unable to hear what they’re saying or understand the point they’re trying to convey.
Creating Connections
In order to experience the benefits of this scenario, we need to take full advantage of the current landscape and put common ground at the forefront of our online interactions. It’s going to take more than good intentions though. We need the right set of tools and online platforms to make it a reality. It’s unlikely that we’ll all start analyzing the Twitter streams or Facebook Fan Pages of everyone we come across to learn that we share a love of Cherry Coke and Seinfeld before passing judgment about each other. As a Web entrepreneur, I’m tasking myself as well as my colleagues in the industry, to foster these types of connections through innovation.
Overall, this will be a subtle change to each individual interaction, but when multiplied by the millions of connections taking place online daily, the impact will be monumental. Imagine millions of people understanding their common ground with every other person in the world. Over time, this will change the way we look at different races, religions and nationalities, and shift the natural first impression that we are all different to a new first impression - that we are all somehow similar.