OUGD402: Ted Talks - Wael Ghonim - Let's design social media that drives real change

Wael Ghonim wanted to create political change in the country - "it felt like I wasn't alone."

"Internet changed my life forever."

Wael Ghonim debates an issue personal to him and gives an anecdote on when he started to create change but then decided to "stay silent" for two years and contemplate why it happened because his page became social media that amplified "hate speech, rumours and toxic."

Polarisation is primarily driven by our human behaviour however, social media shapes this behaviour and magnifies it's impact. Say you want to say something that is not based on a fact.. these are all natural human impulses due to technology this impulse is only one click away.

5 Challenges of Social Media he discusses:

1. We don't know how to believe in rumours.

2. We create our own ecochambers - mute, unfollow and block anyone that is not in our social chamber. "Only communicate with people we agree with."

3. Online discussions quickly decent into angry mobs - forget that these people are real.

4. It became really hard to change our opinions because of the speed of social media we are forced to jump into conclusions and write 140 character views on serious world topics.

5. Today our social media posts over discussions, vote casting over engagements, shallow comments over deep conversations. We are here to talk over each other instead of with each other.

"We need to figure out how social media can be part of the solution instead of the problem."

He made a contemplation of "what if we put more focus on quality?" Give incentive to engage in conversations instead of giving them content and opinions all the time.

What I took away from this talk:

Is that a lot of what is published on social media at the moment is very easily misconstrued because people are rash to create conclusions and opinions on topics they may have not thought about in depth. As character limits and immediate reactions to online content have a connotation of being instant the necessity to reply quickly and abruptly will always be there. This makes people question later on what they had said in their live feed or become regretful if hate follows their quick comment. Even if there was no intention to hurt someone elses views the way it can be perceived and misinterpreted will always be a factor because you can't always get exactly what the person publishing it is saying. For example, if 50 people read a book or watch a film each of those people will interpret it differently. Just as we as design students all interpret a brief differently. I feel like this talk will make me more conscious of the quality of my work and making explanations more objective instead of subjective.