Welcome to the Social

It's not often I'll write a commentary piece. I write tech articles, but when you're writing programs, or articles for the Internet it helps to know your audience, and recent events in Boston brought that audience into sharp focus.

The digital divide was supposed to be those with Internet access vs. those without. In Boston they are discovering that a new divide has opened between those who "get" net culture and those who don't -- and Boston is on the receiving end.

To put things into perspective, Comedy Central's Adult Swim -- who's demographic is in the 18-24 aged young men range -- decided to make a bunch of battery powered light-brights and hang them in public spots where 18-24 aged young men hang out. This was done in ten cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. Most cities managed to remain refreshingly un-terrified. The pros in Chicago questioned the guys hanging the light-brights but decided it was harmless and let them go without charges.

Boston, however, was another story. The media went crazy, the city officials went crazy, and the city ground to a halt as bomb squads raced out to blow up all these crazy "hoax explosives". The Boston media demanded blood, the city officials demanded blood. The two poor schmucks who were employed to hang up the signs were charged (no one is actually saying what they were charged with, but you can be sure the real charge is “making city officials look foolish”).

The Drudge Report picked up the main-stream press mantra:

18:47:35 Suspects Mock Media... PRANK VIDEO... Boston officials livid... *
18:47:34 Two men charged over TIMEWARNER stunt... *
18:43:33 Two men charged... *
13:48:58 TIMEWARNER AD CAMPAIGN BRINGS BOSTON TO A HALT... *
12:05:56 Cops Make Arrest in Devices Ploy... *

It's long been a common assumption that young people don't read news and they don't care about current events. This is actually quite false. Young people do read the news and care about current events as long as it relates into their lives. The geriatric city officials in Boston wouldn't know Mooninite from a Digg or a Reddit. But young people are familiar with all three.

Within hours of Drudge breaking the news, the story had been discussed on the major news aggregation services -- Digg and Reddit, information not supplied by the major media (such as the fact that the publicity stunt was conducted in ten cities and Boston was the only city that had gone postal) was filled in, the people expressing opinions on the subject were voted up or down until a consensus was formed that Boston, well at least its media and city officials, was acting pretty stupid.

Even just a few years ago this sort of instant-punditry by the masses would have been impossible. But web 2.0 encourages interactivity and social interaction. Digg and Reddit have become great melting pots of opinion and commentary that cut through the authority of the old guard. The old guard gave you "and that's the way it is: because we say so" the new guard lets everyone express their opinion to be democratically voted up or down by the great unwashed masses.

The day after “the big shutdown”, Boston officials opened their newspapers and read the old guard media saying how in this post-911 world shutting down a city over a few light-brights was the right thing to do. The papers support the old-world view, the net however is ushering in a collective consensus that what happened in Boston was pretty stupid all the way around and that is something city officials will not be happy to learn. But learn they shall, and the lesson will come from their children.

This is the digital divide and it is the future. Young men, age 18-24, have very little ability to change the world, but they are learning to use the powerful new tools web 2.0 affords them and one day they will be the old guard.

What happened in Boston wasn't important because it highlights paranoia and overreaction in a post 9-11 world, or how “the man” doesn't get Adult Swim. It's important because it illustrates the growing power of social networks -- the collective hive-mind of the Internet: It's not always wise, it's not always a force for good, but it IS a force, and it is getting stronger every day.

The city officials in Boston probably have little to fear right now. They'll hang every charge they can on the two schmucks they already charged, from littering to not having good haircuts because someone has to pay when city officials shut down a city, and it for sure will never be city officials who should have known better. Time-Warner will grease a few palms to make sure the "investigations" never go any further than that. And nothing will really come of it.

But you simply can't help but notice the disparity between how this event was reported...

In boston
And on the net (Warning: language).

When the "mainstream media" is reporting this.
And reddit reponds with this and this.
While Digg Advocates Passive Resistance (with cool led t-shirts).

Perhaps most telling of all is the fact that at a "press conference" the two "suspects" openly mocked the media – why? Well there's always "because they can", but perhaps more tellingly is because "the media", at least the kind at press conferences don't matter anymore. Those who watched the press conference on the net got the message loud and crystal clear even as the old-school reporters, many of whom probably use the Internet every single day of their lives, were scratching their heads in bemusement.

Times they are a changing.

Welcome to the social.