I just want to take a quick minute to talk about the death of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson. I came across her obituary on CNN.com this morning and it struck me. Now, I have no idea who this woman was, nor does it really particularly matter for the purposes of this blog post. The point is the following sentence:
Her death was announced by (Tila) Tequila on her Twitter page and confirmed by police.
WHAT! Well, it’s not really that appalling because this sort of thing seems to be happening more and more. But what is striking to me is the way that technology and celebrity are superseding established institutions, like law enforcement. And that gives me ideas. I have dismissed Twitter for so long, protesting its ubiquity and the propensity for Tweeters to engage in inane banter. This is all still true, but I’ve seen some good things come out of Twitter, and I guess it just depends on what you use it for. This whole thing reminds me of my goal to use innovative technology to organize communities. Twitter is, like it or not, becoming more of a mainstream avenue for communication– Almost like a new, semi-public form of email. I’m still reluctant to fully emerge myself in Tweeting, but there are definite opportunities to disrupt the status quo, whether it be mainstream media, law enforcement or higher education. My theory is that as this decade goes on and as technology becomes more relevant to our actual lives, the digital divide will close and hopefully call attention to more marginalized voices on the internet. That’s one of my goals for 2010, anyway: To discover how to cultivate active online communities and create a forum for people to access progressive ideas.
One step at a time.
