The age of You

-The Cheshire cat paradox “Cat in the tree would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” said Alice. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where”, said Alice “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. In this extract from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice has become lost and asks the cat where she should go next. The cat tells her that in order for him to give her a relevant answer, Alice must have a destination. Without a destination to get to, the cat is unable to show her the way. One could question whether the destination is the most important. In today’s society, changes happen at lightning speed. Yesterday’s news is not necessarily relevant today. In an ever-changing society it is important to know where you are at any point in time, about the conditions surrounding you and the possible routes they open up. Perhaps the inspiration and experience gathered en route are at least as important as reaching the destination? Perhaps insight into one’s own position, knowledge of possible routes combined with a dynamic philosophy is what is really required to succeed? Perhaps it is the cat who is asking the wrong questions and who needs help? When everything changes! Some changes happen suddenly. For example, dinosaurs had no idea what was about to happen to them before they became extinct, but the event was essential for us humans to see the light of day around 65 million years later. A fast change sparked an unusually slow development until humans appeared some hundred thousand years in the future. People’s technical development has happened quite slowly from a human perspective. It actually began during the industrial revolution. Nevertheless, development has been a necessary rung on the ladder to bring us to where we are today, where the Internet, globalisation and social media are part of our infrastructure. When did the world’s really big changes happen? They are easy to lose sight of. For example, is the sextant a greater invention than binoculars, the telegraph, telephone, radio, the Internet or social media? People often become speed blind, perceiving the latest innovation as the most important, the one that breaks all previous boundaries and defines both new world perspectives and paradigms. I personally believe that the invention of the Internet is probably in all its simplicity is one of the greatest technical innovations created by mankind, and it is hard to imagine how our modern society could function without this global infrastructure, which connects everyone and everything together, and when something similar might happen again. Many talk of social media as a new, major revolution, more important than many previous historical events. Fortunately history itself has a way of defining what is right, wrong, important and unimportant. The fact remains that the new social media radically and fundamentally change society in many areas. As Internet guru Clay Shirky accurately puts it: When we change the way we communicate, society changes. I would add that: When society changes – everything changes. Social media change the way we communicate. They change society and break away from the established rules on communication, relationships and the way we do business with each other. They contribute to power shifts; it is no longer the sender who is in charge, but increasingly each one of us. We determine which network we want to be a part of, who we communicate with and what we want to receive and share. We are on the threshold of a society where each individual can define their relationship and their own role in a global relationship-based world, which opens up dizzying perspectives of self-organisation, a wide open society and democratization. When society changes, so do the rules of play: Welcome to the connected society.