technology

Josh Nesbit is the co-founder and CEO of Medic Mobile, a nonprofit technology company advancing globale health equity. This post contains personal opinions, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Medic Mobile.

 

Almost every week, there’s a new article about technology’s double-edged effects on our generation - e.g. our changing memory, the war on quiet, or the fear-inducing “Always-On Attention Deficit Disorder” - with half of “internet experts” claiming Millennials will suffer from hyperconnected lives.

Many worry about tech’s impact on empathy and presence. Look at those 20-somethings on their iPhones at the dinner table ... they don’t care about each other, the people around them, or living in the moment. We’re all doomed.

Not so fast. Let’s tack a step back and look at empathy - more specifically, our moral circles, as articulated by philosopher Peter Singer. We psychologically and emotionally draw a line around those who deserve our moral attention. If you’re inside my line, I’m concerned about you. If you’re outside, tough luck. Decision framing does matter, but there’s been an important trend towards expanding our moral circles as society has evolved.

A crude and incomplete summary - over time, these circles started with ourselves and nuclear families, then extended to additional family, friends, local neighbors, our social class, people in our state, people in our nation, on outwards. Singer says:

“If I have seen that from an ethical point of view I am just one person among the many in my society, and my interests are no more important, from the point of view of the whole, than the similar interests of others within my society, I am ready to see that, from a still larger point of view, my society is just one among other societies, and the interests of members of my society are no more important, from that larger perspective, than the similar interests of members of other societies... Taking the impartial element in ethical reasoning to its logical conclusion means, first, accepting that we ought to have equal concern for all human beings.”

What’s our current status? In an interesting study, thousands of individuals across six countries participated in a public good distribution experiment - the research showed that, “as country and individual levels of globalization increase, so too does individual cooperation at the global level vis-à-vis the local level.” We may not have much control over our country’s trade and globalization indexes, but once individuals get online, we rarely turn back. Increasingly, we are citizens of the internet.

I think this is a good thing. Mobile phones and the web may provide the push we need to extend our circles to everyone, for the first time in history. The bulk of the next billion mobile connections will be in developing, rural areas around the globe. Whether it’s via text message, a Twitter exchange, or a comment thread on Reddit, global conversations will become more common.

There are 6 billion mobile subscriptions, more than four billion mobile users, 800 million Facebook users, and 300 million people on Twitter. Those 20-somethings tapping away on their phones aren’t disregarding humanity, they’re showing up for a conversation at a much bigger, digital table. Physical space no longer owns our experience of each moment. The bottom line is that other people matter, too; this is hard to hear if you’re in someone’s immediate surroundings and you are deemed less important or less in need of attention. The benefits will outweigh this initial social awkwardness, though, and may help us tackle big challenges requiring unprecedented levels of empathy and understanding.

Fellows Friday is a weekly series on the TED Blog that profiles one TED Fellow each week. We have asked the Fellows to answer our question below to share their knowledge and advice with other social entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers who are coming up with big ideas that can change the world. Read past Fellows' answers here.

James Patten creates physical interfaces for technology-producing rich, captivating experiences for the user. 

Question: There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What one piece of advice would you give them, based on your own experience and successes?

Answer: It’s important to be honest with yourself about what you’re good at and not good at. Team up with other people whose strengths are complimentary, in order to form a well-balanced team. I think that’s one of the most important things. It’s tough to go about starting a business by yourself, and it’s much more fun, and better in a lot of ways, if you can do it as part of a team.

Read the rest of James' answer here.

It’s hard to go anywhere today without hearing news about or seeing expressions of mourning for Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and CEO of Apple.  For me, my message of remembrance is one of thanks—thanks to Jobs for playing a pivotal part in shaping my generation and paving the way for greater innovation.

It’s that time of year again. If you haven’t already noticed all the heart-shaped cut-outs in store front windows and the seemingly ubiquitous promotions for red roses and chocolates then let me be the one to remind you that today is Valentine’s Day. Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay and regardless of how you feel about the holiday itself it’s hard not to pause and reflect on your own relationship status today.

Need help? According to Facebook’s profile settings, you are likely to be one of the following:

• Single
• In a Relationship
• Engaged
• Married
• It’s Complicated
• In an Open Relationship
• Widowed
• Separated
• Divorced

It’s odd to think that Facebook is now the way in which many of us end up making a relationship status “official” when we declare it to our profile pages. The fact is technology is changing the way we interact, date and even carry on in a relationship with someone. Whether it’s checking someone’s status, conducting your own informal “background check” via social media (come on, don’t deny it…) or following your loved one’s daily agenda by subscribing to their Twitter feed—love via social media is here to stay. 

As I see it, Millennials are particularly impacted by this shift in relationship norms as they navigate today’s treacherous relationship waters.

• Reason #1: Currently, 75% of Millennials are single or have never been married according to a recent study by Pew. So basically 3 out of every 4 Millennials are potentially looking for their significant other or at the very least consider themselves to be unattached in some respects.

• Reason #2: Millennials retain the title of leading generation when it comes to their use of social networking sites (as well as use of instant messaging; using online classifieds; listening to music; playing online games; reading blogs; and participating in virtual worlds). While this isn’t reason enough to make any inferences, I believe that this generation is primed and the most receptive when it comes to looking for love via social networking platforms.

Looking for Love in All the “Right” Places 

Our changing habits in dating and relationships are also reflected in online dating sites, which are now more popular than ever. A survey conducted by Match.com, an online dating site, revealed that the third most common way people (across generations) now meet their future spouses is through an online dating site—preceded only by the more traditional routes of meeting someone through work or school and through friends or family. In fact, according to the study released in 2010, “one in six marriages are now between people who met through an online dating site – more than twice the number of people meeting at bars, at clubs and other social events combined.”

I remember when online dating first started out—before the Match.com, PlentyofFish and eHarmonys of the world even existed—from what I observed, finding your love match online was seriously frowned upon by many and not widely accepted. However, over time this view has drastically changed… in part I believe because of the growth and popularity of social networks and acceptance of sharing personal information online. These online dating tools also are designed to be seamlessly integrated into our modern day lives and have in the process now become a standard part of our current dating culture. 

"The world has changed," said Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com. "We get married older, we work longer hours, we move around more, we're generally busier. These changes have put pressure on the way we traditionally have met our significant others. Luckily, with these changes has come an increasing openness to doing new things. Online dating has grown so much in part as a response to these societal changes, having become the third most important way we meet our significant others, even though it didn't even exist 15 years ago."

How Do You Feel About Long Walks on the Beach?

What do you think about the popularity of online dating? Will social media and online dating ever supplant in person meet-ups and love at first sight? I don’t think so, however as we continue to integrate social media into our lives and post increasingly large volumes of personal information it is clear that our connections with others will inevitably change as will the ways in which we use social media.

The change will impact more than just our love lives as well...in addition to these changes in our personal relationships we also can see our relationship with social media evolving. Take for example a recent endeavor by Facebook to look at how one’s relationship status may also be an indicator of happiness. Facebook looked at the use of positive and negative words in status messages over the course of one week and linked the data to Facebook relationship statuses. They found that “People who are in relationships [in a relationship, engaged, married] do seem happier than those who are not in relationships. The people that seem the most unhappy are those that either don’t disclose their relationship status or those that are in an open relationship. However, those that don’t disclose their relationship at all are about 50% more negative than everyone else.”

As if you didn’t already have enough to think about today… did you skip that first question about your relationship status? Better take a second look!

Every year the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting convenes some of the world’s most influential leaders and change makers to share ideas and commitments to change the world. While it can be a tough seat to get (it’s by invitation only), many of their sessions are available via webcast, so anyone can benefit from the diverse and dynamic conversations at the meeting. There were many interesting sessions at this year’s event, held last week in New York, but a couple of them stood out as discussions of particular interest (to me and probably to many social citizens) as innovators from all sectors discussed the direction of social action and change.

One of these conversations is about technology for citizen empowerment. The panel, which featured media superstars like Arianna Huffington and Ashton Kutcher, focused, perhaps ironically, on the power of average people to make a difference with technology. As Wired Magazine put it recently, “in a world where everyone is his/her own Ashton Kutcher, who needs Ashton Kutcher?” This might have been a bit of a joke on the panel, but the truth remains that social media has crowned new leaders in various circles – people who might not walk the red carpet, but who have real influence in their growing networks. His philanthropic race to 1 million followers was highly publicized, but now nearly 300 people have hit that 1 million follower mark, but even many users who are far below that count can have a significant impact. As Ashton points out, this creates a climate in which issues that haven’t been attractive for major media companies, like human trafficking, have a chance to reach millions of people.

As we’ve discussed the criticism of slacktivism and how to move people beyond it, another panelist, journalist Omid Memarian, maintains that just having this number of people using tools like Twitter to explore what’s going on in the world is making a difference. Having that many eyes on the actions of the Iranian government actually influenced the way they responded to the riots. “If it was not for the internet,” he says, “many more people would have been killed on the streets.” Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and the Omidyar Network, added that the personal connections Americans made with Iranians via Twitter throughout the crisis formed a new sense of empathy and understanding for the average Iranian that will continue to impact our country’s political and military response to Iran.

As further evidence that these internet observers and journalists are a threat to those who might want to control, mistreat or oppress, Arianna Huffington recalled China’s strategic decision to shut down access to new media within the country and instead invited selected journalists to visit the country and report. Having seen the power and persistence of millions of average people with cell phones or laptops, the Chinese government opted to take their chances with a group of professional journalists instead.

Another topic of interest both here and on the Case Foundation blog has been models where individuals can make a huge difference when their collective action is focused on investing in the lives of other individuals. This was reflected in the discussions around the potential for microfinance in development and empowerment both here and abroad. Having read a post on the Kiva blog about how microfinance alone is not enough to significantly move the needle on national economic development, I was intrigued by a CGI panel entitled “Beyond Microfinance: The Next Stage of Economic Development.” Microfinance is not part of the formal economy, so it cannot provide sustainability to governments and the rest of the population. Fifty percent of jobs worldwide, however, are held in small and medium-sized businesses, so entrepreneurs on this scale need to be supported, retrained and given a chance as well.

For example, Rangina Hamidi started a business called Kandahar Treasure, which she converted to the private sector from a nonprofit organization to create sustainability and autonomy to help women of Afghanistan’s Kandahar region use traditional hand embroidery to support themselves. She found that NGOs were spending funds on short-term projects teaching women to sew or create other crafts, but they were not actually creating business women. She wanted to save resources by capitalizing on what they already knew how to do, while improving quality, and investing in marketing. The panel also features Jacqueline Novogratz, Chief Executive Officer of Acumen Fund, Van Jones from the Center for American Progress, and others.

Check out the videos above and other CGI session videos over the weekend, and share your favorite.

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic this afternoon, after more than seven glorious years with a blackberry by my side, today marks the day I transition over to AT&T, dropped calls, and you guessed it…the iPhone. I just tried explaining to my mom how fearful I was that my productivity would go way down, at least until I caught on to typing on the touch screen. She didn’t feel too bad, offering that, “maybe this is a perfect opportunity for you to reset and move away from the urge to immediately respond to everything that crosses your phone or computer, Kari.”

 

 

 

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For a few years now, I've been hearing people talk about how mobile will hold the next big wave of innovation here in the US. The exception to most technological advances, we are behind many developing nations in mobile. In Africa, for example, it is already being used for microlending, reporting violence and human rights abuses, crowdsourcing crisis information and HIV/AIDS prevention. Organizations like FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi are leading the way in using mobile for social good, and the UN is delivering food aid to refugees via text message.

Because so many people in the US have access to computers, mobile hasn't been a priority, but the convenience and utility of being able to give, bank, report, research and organize on the go may finally be dawning on us.

For a while now, we've been able to leverage the immediacy of being able to donate instantly to a cause that moves you through text to give campaigns. And with the help of the Mobile Giving Foundation, mobile giving is improving with respect to the range of organizations that can set up mobile giving campaigns and the percentage of the donation that actually reaches the nonprofit. Last year Alicia Keys demonstrated the power of mobile giving when she raised $450,000 for Keep a Child Alive from 90,000 mobile donors through one appeal on American Idol, and Ben Stiller has recently launched a series of hilarious Stillerstrong videos to raise money through mobile giving for a school in Haiti. For more about mobile giving, see extremely helpful articles by Joanne Fritz and Katrin Verclas.

When people ask what the next *big* thing in social media will be, the quickly growing, and moderately addictive, Foursquare is often the answer. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, it really only makes sense to use Foursquare on your phone because the purpose of the social media tool is to share with friends where you are out and about in your city and trade tips on deals, favorite dishes or places to watch the game. While I'm still getting into the habit of checking in when I go out, this game-meets-information-sharing platform has lots of potential. Once the reportedly coming-soon blackberry application is widely released, Foursquare will likely be widely used for not only impromptu happy hours, but also volunteering and community organizing.

Holiday bargain hunting has also proven an opportunity for new mobile applications. According to a Deloitte survey, one in five holiday shoppers says they are using their mobile phones to shop this year. The New York Times reports that "of those, 45 percent said they would use their phone to research prices, 32 percent said they would use it to find coupons or read reviews and 25 percent said they would make purchases from their phones."

There are a slue of applications that have been created for mobile-enhanced shopping, including one called ShopSavvy actually allows users to scan the barcode on an item and automatically search for the lowest price available near them. (Is it just me, or is that amazing?) And companies like Amazon and eBay, who says its mobile shoppers are spending $500 million this year, are trying to make it easier for customers to shop using their phones. Just as mobile is helping smart shoppers, applications are also being created to help retailers get smart about mobile. For example, Yowza uses GPS locations to send shoppers coupons for stores within walking distance of their location.

Although this may not be quite the heyday of mobile in the US yet, Foursquare will release a BlackBerry app and become widely adopted next year, and retailers will learn from the mobile use of consumers this holiday season. With all of this activity in mobile (finally) heating up, it seems like 2010 could be a big year. What do you hope to see in mobile innovation and adoption next year?

From Mumbai to Massachusetts, the 2009 Class of Echoing Green Fellows announced today, represents a diverse group of 17 social entrepreneurs, many of whom are honing their skills as social citizens and leveraging technology for social change. With 1,000 applicants the competition was intense, but the fourteen projects announced today, represent some of the most innovative ideas in areas from civil and human rights to education and public service.  That’s why we’ll be watching with great interest as these leaders carry their work forward.

We join in congratulating the newest members of Echoing Green’s network of social entrepreneurs who work each day to solve social, economic and environmental problems throughout the world. To see a complete list of the 2009 Fellows, and learn more about their projects, visit Echoing Green.

Also, we know there are plenty of Echoing Green Fellows in the making, and we’d like to feature some of these bright faces and ideas in our new series “Social Citizen Sightings.”  Please fill out this quick form if you have a group or individual you'd like to nominate for the new series.

By now, we’ve all seen the numbers about the incredible youth vote turn out—23 million young people voted, representing about 52 percent of the under-30 population, and 18 percent of the total electorate. But what does that mean? It means the question du jour is no longer “Will they turn out?” but “Will they stay out?”

So as I see it, the real question is, was the youth vote ever about the election, or something larger?

Enter a November 6 panel discussion at the Center for American Progress titled “Are Today’s Young People Political Game-Changers?”, where many participants stated that election or not, young people are organically creating a movement that challenges status-quo power structures, requires transparency, and demands accountability in the government and across institutions.

This past weekend, I sat down with Ben Rigby and Jacob Colker in between sessions at the Net Impact Conference in Philly. Ben and Jacob are co-founders of the Extraordinaries, and they want to turn your spare time into social good by delivering on-demand opportunities to volunteer. Sounds simple enough, but the real kicker, is that they are building a platform to enable all of this volunteer activity to take place on your mobile phone.

I know what you're thinking - how could anyone have a meaningful volunteer experience from the comfort of their mobile phone, let alone in 20 minutes? But, as issues of work life balance mount, and the constraints on our precious little free time become even greater, it's efforts like the Extraordinaries that may just transform the way we find time to give back and volunteer. To learn more about how it works check out the great video they’ve put together.

And, if you have ideas on the kinds of high quality volunteer experiences that could be supported by this kind of mobile platform, we want to hear from you. Would you use this? What are the types of things you'd be most interested in doing? Do you think short term engagement like this could ever bring the same kind of satisfaction as hands-on volunteering?