Summary Part Two of "Here Comes Everybody"

Wikipedia has millions of articles in
many different languages.  

In the book, Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky takes a look at how social media is revolutionizing our world and how powerful social media truly is.  Shirky first examines the concept of the popular website  Wikipedia.  Wikipedia, "the online encyclopedia", is a website where anyone can create and add to millions of topics.   This collaborative website allows people to find information about almost any topic along with a list of links to other websites with additional information about the topic.  Shirky notes that even though there are many people that contribute to the articles, the majority of the articles are written by just a few.  He then relates this back to Flickr.  For example, The Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 2005 had about three thousand uploaded pictures.  Two hundred and thirty eight photos were posted by Czarina, the next largest sum of photos posted by one person was one hundred and twenty eight.  The average number of photos uploaded was twenty six.  As the number of photos increase the number of people who post lots of pictures decrease.  Shirky also mentions the rapidness in which information is spread.  In this modern age of media, people are able to receive news instantly on news websites, blogs, and other forms of social media.  Information spreads like wild fire and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.  It is difficult for people who do not want their issue shared with the world to keep it private because there is so many ways stories are shared.  Shirky next explores the new fad of flash mobs.  The first flash mob took place in 2003 inside of a Macy's.  Flash mobs are often just for fun but sometimes they are a form of protest.  At first, the government was not sure how to handle flash mobs.  They were peaceful so there was no reason to take action however, it was still a form of protesting so they felt that addressing the matter was needed.  Similar to flash mobs, the government was unsure how to deal with posts placed on social media.  Social media is new to everyone and society as a whole needs to decide how to handle the power of it.

Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Essential Blog Post

Topic: Social Media

Essential Question: Has social media negatively effected society?

Claim: Social media has taken over people's lives and effected our society as a whole in a negative          way.  

Social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have changed
how people write the English language.

Reason: Social media was created as an easier way to communicate with people.  Now people have created an almost entirely new language used on social media often referred to as "text talk".  Abbreviations such as "LOL", laughing out loud, and "BRB, be right back, have become common instead of typing out the words themselves.  This has also shown up in some students writing.  They write the number two instead of writing to and type "u" instead of you.  Text talk has expanded from social media sites and cell phones to everyday lives which is effecting us negatively.