The Web Wont Change the World - People Will

This post comes after reading Reflecting on 2011 The Year Online Organizations Got Real. It was a great post and I encourage you to read it.

“The web wont change the world. People will.”

This was the realization people all across the world came to in 2010. Although this is something society as a whole knew deep down, it became clearer after seeing the failures of progressive campaigns over time. It was time for society to get real, get away from the Tweets, the Likes, and the check-ins, get away from social networks and make a real difference in the world. However none of this could become a reality until we reached a digital rock bottom, form this rock bottom we began to dream big again. Rock bottom is a very scary term but in retrospect this is the best thing that could happen to us.

Each of the four quarters of 2011 would play a unique role in helping us become real again. When Juno the social network branded to good and help society launched in 2010 we saw the same old typical social network outline and felt discouraged. We needed something unique to help us get off the pedestals we were on and make a real difference. Luckily for us the first quarter of 2011 shaped out what would be a truly remarkable year in societal change. People began to pick up history books and read about how past problems were dealt. Through this people came to a realized epiphany: We need people. We need real people everywhere to join our fight, to come together in their community for real action. And all together, maybe we might a real chance.

From this realization we began to pay attention to social networks of caring like Juno and Change.org. Change groups hoping to make an impact in the fight against climate, genocide and human rights began to pop-up everywhere in April of 2011. Rolling into the summer time groups began to call for further action wanting more and more change communities. People who only met online were given maps to meet in the real world, yes in the world in real time. Throughout the summer nonprofits began to team up with organizations such as Juno and Change.org hoping to rile up their supporters in order to make a change. A Get Real campaign started and you could join by creating a group anywhere you lived.

This incredible transformation to social change continued in the fall and winter seasons and towards the end of 2011 social change was the next big thing. Thanks to a revamp of API’s by Socialactions.com any nonprofit website could promote groups working on a organizations issue in their time. A beautiful thing had happened by December 2011, we began to not count the retweets a post got but the number of people we helped connect in the real world. Even though we had not won our campaigns we were able to ignite a movement, which over time would help change the social climate for good. A movement that would truly allow people to save the world one connection at a time.