Face to face connections - impact on societies

I listened to two very interesting interviews this week that at the core were about connecting; one demonstrated how face to face connections empower movements and one discussed a current breaking of traditional face to face connections within a community.

The first interview was on 60 minutes profiling Google executive Wael Ghonim who created the Facebook page that began a New Age Revolution. What started as a means to create awareness about police violence became an information channel that changed the face of a nation. He said that the biggest turning point was when the government shut down the internet because that brought people into the streets for their information. While in the streets they bonded together as a unifying force that became a more powerful movement, more energized than individuals sitting behind computer screens. It also forced believers of the cause to face their fear of anarchy, a fear the government had been using against them as a means to control them.

And then on Valentines Day Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Q spoke to Ann Wroe an Obit writer from The Economist who discussed her article about the demise of the British pub. She stated that since 2005 more than 6,000 pubs have closed. She felt that the ban on public smoking played the biggest part of their demise but she sees many traditions slipping due to the new world order of electronics and societal changes due to immigration. Are more Brits staying home to drink their pints, smoking in the comfort of their home while connecting via FaceBook?

Interesting the juxtaposition between these two interviews. One about pulling people out of their homes into a community, within a movement, to gain more information and to connect over a cause. The streets of Cairo became a hub for information and empowerment of a cause. And the other about pulling away from a long standing community and cultural tradition of connecting at the local over a pint. We can only ponder the impact on British society as communities become more insular.