Social Media's Dark Side

Now I am clearly an enthusiast of social media but there are a lot of skeptics and detractors - particularly in the enterprise social media space. Some skeptics simply don't think social networking is applicable for business or it wastes peoples' time.  Others point to some legitimate examples of real harm being done in the consumer social networking world:

• The 13-year-old who committed suicide, allegedly because of comments made on MySpace
• The riot/party that was broken up by East Lansing, MI police who are claiming it was fueled by comments left on Facebook

And even the promoters of this brave new world speak often of its possibility to enable user revolutions and collective action.  But what happens when mob mentality rules?  Not all revolts are constructive, useful, or warranted. 

In the corporate world, there are a lot more controls than on the consumer web but even things like conference attendees using social media to rebel against a speaker make some people cringe at that potential possibilities of social media going awry. And part of that fear is completely valid - no one wants to sponsor an event where the participants will create a hostile environment.

The point?!?  I think all of us who see the potential in social media need to make sure we acknowledge the dark side of social technologies.  To be philosophical - you cannot have positive without negative or good without bad.

Build social media war gaming scenarios. They will help think through the good - and the not so good - consequences of social media and get everyone on the same page with regards to governance, content boundaries, and  disaster recovery.

What are your war game scenarios?

Comments

[Jeff Hinz]

My thoughts in social media are rooted in both consumer behavior and psychology. You can also throw in a little Maslow. Those rules and laws have already been established and serve social media well. We all just need to be reminded that this new "Wild, Wild, West" is really history repeating itself - online.

[Tatiana Tugbaeva]

Rachel, I think you are making a very good point. And what about this new story about a 14-year-old girl been beaten up because of the MySpace comments? It's not about technology itself though, but about how -and for what purposes- people are using it. Cruelty, violence and riots have always been around, and we've had the same conversation about violence on TV. May be we should stop blaming it all on the technological advances and start taking responsibility for what's going on in our society.

[Dennis McDonald]

I think the "war game scenario" is a good idea. It does require us, though, to consider possible "unthinkable" consequences, things that people sometimes have difficulty imagining. To some extent I address this concept in http://www.ddmcd.com/fud.html and, unfortunately, we need to be aware that people can use these tools for nefarious purposes, and some will argue against them just for that reason.

[Rachel Happe]

Hi Dennis -

Great post - I think you are right - it is hard for people to imagine the worst case. We don't like to believe that people are actively malicious and it doesn't happen on a broad scale very often. But it does happen and having some disaster planning is prudent. If nothing else it forces one to really come to grips with their own abilities to respond so when the response is needed, they already have a plan and a script.