Social media and computing is not immune from its share of problems and abuses. YouTube is walking away from its social video project after a fairly significant investment and Chatroulette seems to be a possible gateway for predatory behavior.
The sins of any emergent capability, however, need not be incurred. With a little forethought, enough insight into how and why good things go so bad can help up identify those characteristics that need to be avoided.
Here are an initial set of seven such sins that if believed and followed, will certainly result in realizing some level of adverse effects.
1. Social networks, and its respective social media, are defined by the tools and/or the technology used to establish, create, and manage them (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc). Social networking more that any one technology, it is a codified by a set of behavioral patterns within a community.
2. Transparency of information and knowledge is an option in social networks (social media communities). Believing that you can hide in or from a community in a social network is the quickest way to exposure.
3. All social media is created equally, is equally important, and is of equal value to social networks. Your community is not a collective and is represented by individual and unique needs.
4. Assuming the average return on investment (ROI) for social media is equal to the ROI associated with the average demand of a social network. This is the Flaw of Averages as applied to social media and networks.
5. You define and control your social networks and the social media of value to them (social media communities). This could be the sin of ignorance in that believing one can control any large complex entity is a sign that one lacks understanding of how things work.
6. The future behavior of a social network is just like the behavior it has today. The only certainty about a social network and the persistency of it social media is that there is nothing certain about it.
7. Believing that there are only six deadly sins. The seventh of the seven deadly sins is being lulled into a sense on complacency, believing you know all the insidious effects of social media.
This concept of the Seven Deadly Sins… is based on the work of Sam Savage at Stanford University, as written in his book “The Flaw of Averages.” Please take the time to check out this work as well.
This is work in progress. Please let me know what you think and add your own Deadly Sin to the list.
Practical Aspects of Social Media: Art, Science, and Humanity 