Conforming to Individuality

Makers Mark. Consumer outrage. Social media. When you put all of these things together what do you get? Well, nothing really, but in today's society you can get change. It seems that people have really taken to social media to try and make changes. Are the days of the physical protest gone? Walking down the street with picket signs? Maybe. Social media and society's attention to it has changed the landscape. People (in number) can get the word out much more effectively today if the utilize the Internet. Remember Wisconsin a couple years back? Remember when they were protesting the disbanding of unions and they actually had Wisconsin government official leaving the state so they could delay a vote? That was a good one!

People today have changed. We have become an extension of our electronic selves. In many ways this could be a good thing. Providing we do not allow this to kill who we are or keep us from participating in things that we like and not just what they like. This is the biggest issue that I see coming out of all the social media hype. Conformity.

I spent most of my working career as a manager of one kind or another, for one company or another, and of varying sizes of groups. I learned a great deal about people during those years and one thing that sticks out in my memory is that people want to be lead. The majority of people do not want to be a leader. The majority of people want someone to take control and show them what to do. Sure, this does not apply to 100% of the people out there but most. This is where social media stands to cause trouble. Since people are more apt to follow, it stands to reason that they will do just that when a popular "movement" appears on their Facebook page asking for them to join.

So is this how some of these massive social media protests get so many followers? I'm sure that a large number of them join in this way. They might have no knowledge of what the organizers are protesting nor do they really care. All they know is that they are "in" with the rest of the crowd and that makes them feel part of something. But are they? Can you really say that you are a part of something if you just clicked a "JOIN" button on some webpage because a friend sent you a link on Facebook? I think not.

It is for reasons like this that most of the so-called online protests or social media protests should almost be taken with a grain of salt. Recently much hype was made about a Twitter "gathering" that coincided with the protest of the Keystone XL pipeline on the National Mall when 35,000 plus people showed up to protest. But you have to ask yourself, how many of the people on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media outlet are just your typical, run-of-the-mill "followers"?

Conformity has been a part of our society forever. Although it has its stigmas it is not always a bad thing to conform to what society is doing or what society wants. You have to make your own decisions and your own choices. If you can do that and they happen to be in line with what the rest of society wants then so be it. You can still be an individual by conforming so long as the choices you make are your own.