Last week, as most of you know there was a horrible school shooting at Virginia Tech.
As a result, there has been an outpouring of blog, facebook and myspace activity of mourners around the world. There are currently 500+ facebook groups dedicated to posting nice notes about Virginia Tech.
My question is a simple one - how much of that virtual action can be translated into real action that has impact in the world? This is a critical question for us who are associated with organizations seeking to change the world through some real action. In my case, I want to be able to translate lots of virtual activity such as blog posts, message boards, etc. into tangible donations for SickKids Foundation. In Amnesty International's case, they want to translate web activity to letter writing campaigns, activism around the world, etc.
Does having 500 groups devoted to Virginia Tech on facebook accomplish anything other than communication? And does the virtual activity encourage real action or does it encourage complacency, e.g. it eases people's conscience enough to avoid having to actually DO something in real life about the world's problems?
I see the same problem with the current hype over the Greenhouse effect. This week in Toronto the city tried to ban leaf blowers as they create pollution and release a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. People would be encouraged to a push mower instead. What's interesting is that despite all the good will, positive communication and media attention when there is a little bit of real action required, the commitment evaporates. The leaf blower ban was defeated easily thanks to the "leaf blower lobby" of people with large lawns, the landscaping industry, etc.
So I think the next wave of these social networking sites is the ability to drive the hype to conversion - if all this social activity doesn't actually drive itself to a transaction (a petition, a protest, an event, a donation, a purchase, etc.) then it's really just hot air...
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