Tag Archive for: humanity

Misinformation
Dominique Jaurola

Hunome at MozFest 2022 – Tackling misinformation with perspectives

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The purpose of Hunome is to help humanity make sense of itself on a collective insights platform.


Our members build shared understanding on Hunome. Members build on their own theme of interest and curiosity or they join others. This enables sharing one’s knowledge to contexts rather than in bits and pieces.


At MozFest 2022 our participants built a multidimensional shared understanding on misinformation.


When we planned the event we knew that misinformation was an important matter to tackle. This is in order for humanity to come back to a constructive track.


Reaching a shared understanding or building an understanding for self seems hard to achieve online today.


We humans have made enemies of people who disagree on anything. “Us and them” has become very pronounced.


At the time of MozFest 2022 the world was again facing the tragic causes of misinformation. False narratives lead to serious consequences.


Those who have been influenced by the one-sided messages for years will swallow it, thus helping the bad to happen.


Evil happens when good people do nothing. If you have been influenced heavily about the true nature of evil or any situation you will not know how to act. Not an excuse but a reality of what has happened and is happening.


On Hunome this one sided view of the world is hard to achieve. We love to see the multidisciplinary perspectives. This enables us to flex our perceptiveness muscle.


Human ingenuity is wonderful in what kinds of connections we humans make. On Hunome we assist serendipity, which is the secret sauce for creativity and innovation.


So, the goal of the session was to create a shared understanding about the causes, impacts and fixes of misinformation.

During our MozFest workshop we focused on understanding misinformation itself as a theme. Hunome tackles misinformation in any theme with its structure of bringing perspectives together.


Now we seek your input to this goal.

We would love for you to add your thoughts to this evolving ‘SparkMap’. Our members Spark each other to new heights through connecting the dots.


Do you have great insight into the history of misinformation? Some we found in an article published on the BBC. We would love to hear anthropological, sociological and psychological sets of perspectives. Maybe you have perspectives about the rise and fall of civilizations.


Here are some directions of the thinking we got to during the workshop. The work is never finished with new studies, thoughts and ideas continuing to build a deeper understanding.

SparkMap Orbit views from the workshop

Misinformation is rife was the kick off ‘Spark’ 

…to spark our thinking. Our members build in different ways depending on their ways of thinking and subject matter.

Causes of misinformation 

In the interest of time we from Hunome filled the ‘causes’ part a bit but it awaits many kinds of inputs from you. Getting to the root causes happens when you ask yourself why does the perspective you read happen and keep asking. Often after a while in the train of thought you come to very human root causes. False information becomes successful due to very human reasons. These are for example  manipulation, trust, fear, coping, lack of transparency, needs, greed and ego.

Causes of misinformation

Impacts of misinformation

It might be interesting to build on this by adding your Spark as the impact of the impact and getting to some very interesting impacts as a train of thought.

Impacts of misinformation

Fixing misinformation

Some very good ideas here from our participants. Do come and add yours. SparkMaps know no limits. 

Fixing misinformation. A part of a SparkMap that participants at MozFest created.
Fixing misinformation
How to build understanding from perspectives
Dominique Jaurola

How to build understanding from perspectives

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We’re building understanding. Hunome connects different perspectives to build a multidimensional understanding of themes relating to us humans. We think different perspectives can open up a wealth of understanding of what it means to be human, which is why we help humanity make sense of itself. 

But wow – making sense of humanity seems like a huge task. Who has that breadth and depth of knowledge to create a better understanding of all of humanity? 

Well, actually we all do.

Being human is as simple as the way you greet others, or how you fold your socks. Of course, it can also be as complex as understanding behavioral patterns or the ins and outs of social psychology. You could be an expert in anthropology, or just have a really strong feeling about something, but as humans, you’re all qualified to help make sense of humanity. 

And every one of our perspectives, on any theme, contributes to the collective build of understanding. Here’s how.

Building your own understanding

Hunome has been designed so that anyone can easily connect thoughts, ideas, experiences – any perspective, really – on all themes related to humans. 

Let’s look at the use of recreational space, for example. A designer could share insights on the latest thinking on recreational areas, while two town planners could add their perspectives on wild vs manicured public gardens. A member of a community fitness group could share their reasons why recreational space needs to be accessible and adaptable. 

By connecting their perspectives, anyone that is curious about the theme can start to join the dots in their understanding of where their thoughts fit into the picture. Maybe they can see that many actually disagree with their view on public spaces, or that they have an enlightening perspective on this particular topic. They broaden their own outlook on the theme by taking into account other points of view, gaining insights even for things one would not have thought of connecting.

Building shared understanding

What’s more, together they start to make sense of where public spaces and recreation fit into the human experience. Perhaps there are others who are curious also and can expand their thinking from the views shared.  Or maybe there’s a problem that emerges that impacts our collective experience (the mental and physical impact of the lack of green space in built up areas). Humans, adding their perspectives to make a lasting mark on our evolving understanding of public spaces. 

As understanding builds around many themes related to humans, using these insights becomes more common-place in all areas, not just in relation to public spaces. We can explore evolving understanding relating to shared problems, or build systems from their component parts, or understand change and its impact, to get a comprehensive understanding of how the world works. 

Building multidimensional understanding to make a difference

We have the ability to change the world with multidimensional understanding. As insights around the human experience build, so does our ability to make more human-aware decisions. We can start using these insights in practical ways – making personal decisions by building understanding of what’s involved and what’s at stake, or design products and services with a better understanding of their impact. 

And with a better understanding of the human accessible for everyone, we improve our own perceptions, and those of others. This is the impact we hope Hunome has on the world, by helping humanity make sense of itself. 
Take your first step on the journey to helping humanity make sense of itself, Sign up for Hunome today.

woman blows bubbles
Dominique Jaurola

5 things you should know about Hunome

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We love feeding curiosity, whether it’s our own, or whether it’s yours. For those of you curious about Hunome (and if you’re not, you should be) here are 5 things that we believe in which make a difference to your experience.

1. Building understanding is free

Yes, that’s right. What you love about Hunome right now is, and always will be, free for our members. We believe that all of humanity should have the opportunity to contribute to our collective understanding of what it means to be human. 

2. No ads, please

At the same time, we don’t believe that the social media advertising model works to help forward collective understanding (you can read more about that here) which is why we’re ad-free. Your data is your data. We only use it to deliver benefits back to you, not to sell on for advertising purposes outside of Hunome. That way you rest assured that whatever you create and find on Hunome translates directly to value for yourself and other members. 

3. See ya, single-sign on! 

We’re building a quality community of humanity explorers, the people who are eager to make sense of the richness in the world. We promise humanity explorers a platform where they can build a comprehensive understanding of their areas of focus, and make a difference to our overall perception of how the world really works. 

As an initial step towards delivering the quality value promise to the community at Hunome, our registration process has a ‘Why Hunome?’ question to help build an environment where the insightfulness of our humanity explorers can shine!

Are you a humanity explorer? Take our quiz to find out. 

4. You reap what you sow

Hunome allows you to build your understanding in a way that is as unique as you are. Whether expert opinion, or just a feeling, you can be creative or incredibly structured to discover the value of your thinking, your way. 

A Spark is your starting point on Hunome. It can be a thought, an idea, an experience on a particular topic – anything that springs to mind. From there, you can connect and build understanding, add context, explore trains and systems of thoughts, and dive into insights. The journey is what you make of it, and like with most things in life, the more you put in, the more you get out. 

5. Open new doors to exploration

We don’t want to tell you how to think. You do that incredibly well on your own. Because of this, you won’t find ‘best fit’ results or ‘related’ content, because what you want is all, well, relative. What we do give you is the opportunity to make your own discoveries, by giving you many different starting points to explore. No rabbit holes of the same here. Finding your own path to understanding is so much more rewarding, anyway. 

So there you are, five things that we do a bit differently here at Hunome for good reason. We remove these pesky obstacles so that you can focus on building understanding to unlock the value in your thinking.

We hope you love it as much as we do. Sign up for Hunome today.

what is a humanity explorer?
Dominique Jaurola

What is a humanity explorer?

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We talk about humanity explorers a lot here at Hunome. In fact, we love them. Which is why we’ve designed our collective insights platform with them in mind. 

But what exactly do we mean by a humanity explorer? In this blog, we break down the DNA of humanity explorers.

1. Humanity explorers come from all walks of life

Whether they are professionally curious, or personally interested in everything about the world around them, humanity explorers take many forms. 

They could be designers, marketers, strategists – people whose job it is to understand how the world works or think about how it should work. Or they could simply be someone who is curious about why people think and act the way they do. Gartner estimates there are 1bn knowledge workers,  and up to 50% of developed world adults can be considered to be a ‘cultural creative’. 

They may already identify as a humanity explorer, or have no idea, but whatever their background, the thing that ties all together is a hunger to understand ‘why’ and ‘what next.

2. Humanity explorers are empathetic and insightful

A person who is a humanity explorer can be more empathetic to many kinds of life situations, and tends to have a broader world view. This natural curiosity and sense of collective results in an insightful outlook – perhaps a finger on real world frustrations and human goals, or a better view of potential and opportunities. They may be seen to have a creative streak in many ways, as insightfulness may present itself as creativity.

DNA of a Humanity Explorer
A look at the DNA of Humanity Explorers

3. Humanity explorers don’t see the world in black and white

We’ve already mentioned that a humanity explorer has a broad worldview. Their attitudes to society and the world around them is encompassing and open. Alongside this is their ability to see, and appreciate the nuance. They know that a black and white view of the world is simplistic and in some cases problematic. They may even go so far as to seek out the many shades of grey in between, building bridges across silos and digging into their area of interest to get the full picture. 

4. Humanity explorers are curious about the bigger picture

As empathetic people who are interested in nuance, humanity explorers tend to see themselves as a part of a whole. They accept that a better functioning system is the one that takes these varying sides into consideration, and will actively work towards finding this out. Their collective view makes them less self-centred and more human-aware.

5. Humanity explorers make better decisions

With that in mind, humanity explorers make decisions that tend to be more sustainable. By taking into account all viewpoints, the outcome of a decision isn’t weak in argument, or driven into a simplistic corner. It’s robust, insightful and brings together many different types of thinking for a better, long lasting result. For more on how to make better decisions, read our blog. 


Think you could be a humanity explorer? Take our quiz to find out or sign up for Hunome, the collective insights platform for humanity explorers.

People rush past each other ignoring each other's humanity
Dominique Jaurola

Social disparity: Is the world growing further apart?

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Last year, we saw many issues that divided the world. The US presidential race, the world-wide Black Lives Matters movement, masks, to name a few.

Of course, this extreme polarization itself isn’t the issue. There will always be people at either the ends of the spectrum of any debate. Social disparity lies with the lack of nuance. The ‘you’re either with us or against us’ attitude. 

We find ourselves in a very black or white world without the many shades of grey that color any healthy debate. Complex issues are boiled down to simply ‘For’ or ‘Against’ and we find ourselves growing further away from those who have a different perspective.

But how have we got to this point, and how can we fix it?

Social media advertising breeds disparity

Mika Raulas talks about the social media advertising model in his blog. Social platforms package up data on users and sell super-targeted advertising to companies who want to reach their perfect customers. 

But these algorithms aren’t designed with the individuals using the platforms in mind, rather those who want to target them.

This is why you often see the same type of content that you’ve engaged with displayed over and over again. The results are an echo chamber where very specific views are played back to the individual, and amplified through their network. 

There becomes very little space for diversity of thought when it appears as though your particular brand of thinking is the main stance on a subject. 

Social disparity hinders problem-solving

Segmented perspectives are great for advertisers, but not so good for problem-solving.

When we consider wicked problems and the systems thinking needed to approach them, polarization makes it harder to come up with a solution. I talk about the future of humanity and how a holistic view helps us understand the full problem, but also how changes to one component affects other areas.

On the other hand, a narrower view removes our ability to address these types of problems. We become so focused on our own view without considering the big picture, and without exercising our curiosity or empathy.

For example, lack of fair access to education is a global issue, a wicked problem, and a symptom of social disparity. Improving access to education requires exploring every perspective to build a better understanding of the issue. 

Diversity in perspectives challenges our own thinking and encourages us to view the world in a different way. It can even make us smarter. It’s here where creativity and innovation are born.

Disparity in gathering information

But even gathering different perspectives to further our thinking, can promote social disparity.

In today’s world, information is fragmented or held in siloes. You might watch a video, or read an article and browse the relevant Wikipedia page to understand an issue. But you may never get access to academic research on the topic or have sight of someone’s private musings.  

Pulling together information to get a true picture of things takes time and money. Gaining understanding becomes about those who have the ability to do so, and those who have not. It also limits the scope of design, problem-solving and decision-making to be geared towards those who have, which widens the gulf further.

If we want to close the gap, we must stop wearing our differences as badges and start embracing our diverse points of views. Once people can be brought together around a theme, we can start building a better society, together.

Here are just some perspectives about social disparity. Come add your own to help build a multidimensional understanding of social disparity, and other themes.

 

People at work listening to each other speak in a meeting
Mika Raulas

Why you should be leading with humanity

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In a data-driven economy, we have many indicators of performance that help us navigate our way through the business landscape. However, the numbers only tell one story, and leading with humanity can help you build a more robust path forward. 

Leading with data vs leading with humanity

As a leader it can be easy to fall into the habit of focusing on the numbers – productivity, efficiency and the bottom line. After all, data is a black and white indicator of what’s working for your business, and what isn’t – especially when times are hard. 

The numbers are readily available too – everything from revenue to life time value to employee sentiment is available at a click of a button. The problem is that while these numbers help leaders make decisions about their business, they miss one crucial element – the human factor, and how a clear insight on what is important to people can help you make your company stand out.

Yes, great leadership is about solid business acumen and making the right decisions for your company. But leaders should also be actively trying to understand the humans involved, customers, employees, communities, to add dimension to the numbers and the impact of their data-driven decisions.

Human-aware leadership for better decisions

By understanding the people involved, leaders can get a better understanding of how your company fits into their lives. For example, sales data may show you that wardrobe sales are up, however understanding the human shows that buying good quality furniture from sustainable wood is at the top of your customers’ mind. One indicator may lead you to ramp up production from cheaper, less sustainable sources, and then leave you wondering why your sales have suddenly dropped off, whereas the other could open up a market that you hadn’t previously considered. 

Dominique Jaurola shares 3 tips to making better, human-centered decisions, both personally and professionally.

Human-aware leadership for better understanding

Leading with humanity also requires a degree of empathy. Understanding the problems of the people who you impact can help you to find solutions that are meaningful. 

One story that really hits the nail on the head is that of Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, who made headlines by giving everyone in his company a minimum wage of $70,000. After hearing first hand from employees who were struggling financially (and were somewhat disgruntled), then crunching the numbers, he realised that he could make a difference in their lives. 

The really amazing thing here is that not only did this increase employee satisfaction amongst more junior employees who got a pay increase, but more senior people were happy to take pay cuts to work for Gravity because it was putting its people first.

Leading with humanity and better motivation

Here’s the thing: leading with humanity leads to better motivation. We can see this in the case of Gravity Payments and their customers. Communities are motivated to engage more with brands that show their humanity, customers are motivated to do business with companies that show their human side, and will in some cases, be happy to pay a premium to do so. 

Humanness is a powerful motivator for those who your company touches, but as a leader, how can you go about fostering understanding? My advice to you is this: fuel your curiosity. 

  • Go out of your way to understand different perspectives on every aspect of your business. 
  • Consider every perspective, no matter how insignificant it may seem – some of the brightest gems come from the most unexpected places. 
  • Don’t rely on the numbers alone – find ways to discover that much needed depth. 

Good leaders are the ones who can steer their ship in the right direction. Great leaders are the ones who take the time to learn from everyone who is coming along for the journey. 

For more information on how Hunome can help you lead with humanity, please get in touch, otherwise sign up for Hunome to join. 

Here are just some perspectives about leading with humanity. Come add your own to help build a multidimensional understanding of human-centered leadership, and other themes.
Woman blows confetti and celebrates
hunomer

Hunome: the new platform set to revolutionize our understanding of humanity

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Today marks the launch of Hunome, a collective insights platform helping humanity make sense of itself. 

Hunome is a new way to understand all things human. The platform connects and analyzes member perspectives to collectively build smart data around themes that relate to humans and humanity. Using human ingenuity and data analytics as a springboard to better understanding,  Hunome facilitates complex problem-solving and better decision-making for both individuals and organizations, which evolves as more perspectives are added.

Dominique Jaurola, CEO and Founder of Hunome, said: 

“There are many points in life when you need to ‘know’ about humans, whether you’re looking for inspiration, trying to solve a human-centered problem, or simply curious about why something is a certain way. To get a holistic view takes time and money to pull together information that is scattered or siloed across the internet – and often the incomplete picture leads to a simplistic understanding of our humanness. Hunome gives our community the minute detail and the big picture surrounding any theme.”

Members can journey through different perspectives on many themes, while making connections by adding their own points of view.  They can then dig deeper into data-driven insights to get greater understanding on the theme and the people who have contributed to it.

“With Hunome, anyone can see change as it happens, follow a theme as it evolves and grow their understanding alongside it,” Dominique continues, “The world we live in needs solutions that are not meaningful to think about in isolation. Our dream is to create an understanding of who we humans are, why we are, what we would like to change. We want to give our humanness – past, present and future – a voice, and each member a position on the map of this understanding. Our launch today is the first step in our journey to making the world a more perceptive place.”

Start building a better understanding of humanity by signing up for Hunome.

Ends

Contact:

Chantel Gohil-Gray – [email protected] 

About Hunome

Hunome is a collective insights platform helping humanity make sense of itself. We’re revolutionizing our understanding of what it means to be human. Our platform combines connects and analyzes perspectives to collectively build smart data so that anyone can connect perspectives, evolve insights and create new understanding.

www.hunome.com 

Make better decisions
Dominique Jaurola

3 tips to make better decisions in every aspect of your life

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Make better decisions. It sounds simple but in practice, it’s not as easy you might think. 

As humans we make more or less 35,000 decisions a day. These decisions can vary from the small things; like what socks to wear; or whether to watch the news, to the bigger choices; will a gap year be detrimental to my career prospects; should we be making environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes; do I go for the big promotion? 

When considering the bigger decisions that we make, both personally and professionally, we know that the outcomes of these decisions have an impact on wellbeing. I loved Barry Schwartz’s great TedTalk about how more choice has made western societies more dissatisfied, rather than making us happier. 

The fundamentals of most strategies for decision-making include objective setting, investigation, establishing options, reacting and evaluating. Many of us already follow this pattern in some form or another, whether consciously or not, from a very young age. And for that reason, I don’t tell you how to make a decision – I want to share how you can make better decisions. Ones that consider all the variables, have maximum impact, and are sustainable in the long run. 

Tip 1. Take a moment to understand the whole issue

The decision you are making may be based on one area and it’s direct impact to you. Take the decision of whether you should go freelance, for example. Going freelance would give you more flexibility and potentially more money.

But like most things relating to us humans, there’s likely to be a series of interconnect points, or systems, that exist around that one topic. Is there a saturation of freelancers in the market? Will new tax rules make it harder to profit from being freelance? Is working by yourself better for your well-being than being in a team?

Understanding the whole system ensures that your ultimate decision is based on the whole issue, not just the pointy bit that is directed at you and your immediate needs.

When considering how human-centered design can help businesses build resilience against COVID-19 uncertainty, Mika Raulas talks about the importance of understanding the core problem. Whether you want to solve a problem or make better decisions, the same principle applies. Your end decision becomes more sustainable when you take into account the whole.

Tip 2. Consider the other perspectives

Who else is interested in this topic at the heart of this decision and why does it interest them? You’ll be seeing and interpreting the topic from one angle but taking the time to understand other points of view gives you a much fuller picture. 

Right now, you have a certain perspective but as you journey down the path that your decision leads you on, it’s pretty likely that your perspective will change and evolve. Someone else, may already be at that point, or have a completely different point of view that makes you consider the whole issue in a different way. Being aware of the different sides to the topic, and understanding why someone thinks that way can save you a lot of effort and surprises.

As an extension of that, take into account the needs of those whom your decision will impact. My blog about how understanding humanness helps you make better decisions goes into this, but essentially a better understanding helps you make better decisions that have the right impact on the people around. 

Tip 3: Be ready for change

We’ve all been there – you make a decision based on the information that you have to hand, but then a new factor emerges that shifts everything. My first two tips can help to prepare for issue-related shifts, but big surprises, whether from the macro-environment or somewhere else, will always, always exist. For example, you enroll in a university course to study philosophy, but your partner is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity in another country. 

And while you can’t plan for every eventuality, you can build a network that helps you understand and evolve your thinking quickly. Whether this is a team of trusted advisors, a repository of materials, or a platform that does all of the above, being prepared means that you can respond to the issues and make better decisions at pace.  

At Hunome, we’ve created a platform that helps our members make better decisions, by allowing them to understand themes holistically, the different perspectives involved and the people who have contributed to them, and real-time evolution of themes. See how Hunome can help you make better decisions by signing up for Hunome today.

Woman uses viewfinder to gaze ahead
Dominique Jaurola

What does the future of humanity look like?

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In the past 12 months, our attention has been drawn to many problematic aspects of society. The soft spots in our societies have been exposed as the pandemic stress tested our models. The problems that have arisen are going to impact the future of humanity if we ignore them.

Mika discussed how the social media advertising model promotes segmentation of the consumer base in his last blog. An unintended consequence of this is that segmentation is more apparent in society. If we allow this to continue, the rifts become deeper and the hostility we experience online spills over into everyday society. We’re actually already seeing this taking place – recent protests have made the news world-wide when peaceful demonstrations for a cause spill over into violence. Somehow social media has given us license to be angry, unyielding, and worse, violently hostile towards anyone that has a different point of view from our own. The future of humanity, left unchecked, becomes the stuff of nightmares.

Introducing wicked problems

The deep divide in society is a wicked problem to solve, and what I mean by that is a social or cultural problem that’s difficult to fix (Interaction Design has a great bank of content all about wicked problems). This could be for a number of reasons, incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the financial or economic burden of solving the problem, or even the interconnected nature of this problem with others (think Homer-Dixon’s ingenuity gap that I discuss in my blog about where perspectives come from!).

In fact, the issue of polarization in society is just one of many wicked problems that have arisen over the years. We think about the climate change debate, how to promote equality, or access to education. These are all examples of wicked problems that have existed for sometime, but have been brought into sharp focus in recent years and months. And it’s hard to even know where to begin solving them, but at the same time the consequences of leaving them unaddressed are untenable – the future of humanity depends on us being able to solve these problems.

How to solve humanity’s biggest problems

Design theorist Richard Buchanan was the first to connect design thinking to tackling wicked problems in his 1992 paper. The theory has since developed to suggest that systems thinking, how components of a system influence each other as well as other systems, combined with agile methodology, a collaborative and iterative approach to design and development, can inspire the innovation needed to solve wicked problems.

Simply put, the innovation needed to tackle wicked problems comes from understanding the big picture as well as the detail and context, while working together for continuous improvement. No big deal then.

When I think of the problem of polarization, I often wonder what it’ll take for people to accept other points of view. Perhaps if instead of dividing, platforms worked on creating an inclusive and collaborative environment, different perspectives can be brought together for better understanding of the overall issue. And once we understand the overall issue, we can work together to apply context and meaning. Sound familiar? In the true fashion of interconnected wicked problems, perhaps a solution to one problem, can also help to solve many others.

This is what we’re doing at Hunome. We’ve created a platform that can help address some of the biggest and smallest problems that face the future of humanity, designed for collective sense-making and building better understanding for self or with others. To see where your wicked problems fit in, sign up for Hunome.

A line of people looking at their individual phones
Mika Raulas

Deep social rifts – the negative impact of social media on society

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Something is wrong with the social networks we’re using today. 

The news has been dominated in recent weeks by moves from the big platforms that have made us all question their role in facilitating constructive exchange of opinions and ideas in society. Facebook and Twitter banned President Donald Trump in the wake of civil unrest in Washington. A confusing message regarding WhatsApp’s privacy policy saw millions of users switching to rivals for fear of having their data shared, and resulted in the messaging app backtracking on that change attempt. 

The fact of the matter is that people feel uncomfortable with the far-reaching impact of social media platforms on society. Regardless of whether you agree with censorship, or see the necessity in data-sharing, the question remains – why do we feel so uneasy? 

The impact of the social media advertising model 

Well, social media platforms know everything about us with terrifying precision (for those who haven’t seen the Social Dilemma, what are you waiting for?!). These companies can share the intelligence they gather on users with companies, advertisers who want to target their perfect customers. While this segmentation has its purpose (and has revolutionized the world of sales and marketing), it’s a massive use of resources and these algorithms are not used to benefit the individual using those services but rather the business of the platforms and their clients, the advertisers. It’s also created a very ugly and unwanted byproduct- deep polarization. 

Huge cracks are forming in society. It’s plain to see everywhere, not just in US politics. Covid-19 alone has thrown up many points of contention: vaxxers/anti-vaxxers, mask/no masks, lockdown/herd-immunity, for example. And the impact of social media is speeding along this ‘you’re either with us or against us, there’s no in between’ attitude. For all the benefits we’ve gained from the rise of social media platforms, we’ve lost some quite crucial things: the art of discourse, empathy and understanding. We’ve lost what makes us human. 

Breaking away from the status quo

What can be done about this? Our lives are so entwined with these social media behemoths that it’s hard to see how to breakaway. But perhaps it’s not a question of breaking away, and more a case of putting humanness back in the mix. 

Expecting the platforms of today to change their business models to really serve their customers, the users of the content on their platforms, is difficult if not impossible. Nevertheless, there’s a need for more inclusivity, more of a focus on the collective experience and understanding. 

Platforms that  are truly customer-driven, encourage actual meaningful debate where members respect each other’s perspectives are going to stand out in a world where pontification is rewarded by likes (which gives no context and in itself is problematic, but that’s a topic for another day). By encouraging discussion, our differences become just as valid as our similarities, and we can begin to understand each other, and ourselves. 

Sucks for the advertisers though, right? After all, they’ve built sales pipelines on the data available from social media platforms. Well actually, no. 

Now is the time for change

Businesses are moving towards human-centricity (read my blog from WebSummit to see why some of the biggest names are putting humanness in the heart of their strategy). They want to understand their customers beyond the demographics that are readily available through social advertising. They want to know the human beings behind the buying decision – by understanding the real problems they face, their true desires and concerns, businesses can offer solutions that have a better impact on society as a whole.

We’ve hit a crunch moment. We have a chance to change the direction that humanity is heading in, away from the hostile and deeply divided world and towards something that offers comprehensive understanding. It’s time to fix the negative impact of social media on the fabric of society. Let’s seize the opportunity – individually and collectively. Let’s make sense of humanity together.