Social Media and We the People
Today the casual over the fence sort of communication has warped into a futuristic “beam me up Scottie” sort of climate. Now a person living in Chicago can chat it up with a person living in the remotest part of Romania, and all for pennies on the dollar. Social Media has made the old cliché “it’s a small world” a reality. Your neighbors are truly the entire four corners of the world. The conversation regarding health and nutrition has gotten louder over the last few decades, now words have no boarders. People gravitate to authentic voices and now those voices are easy to access. In the world of nutrition voices like, Merion Nestle are just finger clicks away. Twenty years ago her voice was heard but primarily in the classroom or in scholarly journals. Now you can follow her on twitter and she just may follow you if you say something that catches here attention.
Now the blue bird can carry your message with lighting speed in a hyperlinked style that is subversive, and cannot be controled.1 it’s like something written out of the book “The Cluetrain Manifesto.” The book was a sort of a clarion call to all the people on earth that social media will change the landscape of life as we know it. This was almost fifteen year ago and the book has become a classic, because of course it has. It warned, how anyone can say anything and the entire world can have access to it. And more importantly their version of good advice is in human voice, not some rehearsed 60 second sound bite.1
Communication in the past has been has been in the total controlled of media gatekeepers, corporate elements that use the system to sell products in a hegemonic style. People gravitate to authentic voices and now those voices are much easier to access.1 Not only can you read what people like Ms. Nestle is thinking and what she supports, but you can look at the people she finds interesting enough to follow and find out what they’re doing, it flow in a logarithmic style. The Cluetrain Manifesto also says “markets are conversations” big businesses are is always listening to consumer voices, because the want to sell to them.1 The public want to avoid the sells pitch and listen to human voices, this is one reason the nutrition values are changing. We can at the click of button tap into the professional conversation on the issues of trans-fats or aspartame (a controversial sugar substitute) and hyperlink it to our friends and family. It has been said that the old media gatekeepers have lost their control.
Because now everyone can “listen up” all at the same time, open letters are becoming a tool to inspire some to action. Ms. Nestle along with a list of very impressive names wrote an open letter to the members of congress about the farm bill. In the letter these group of PhD’s and other professional, exposes the progams for the new farm bill as programs that benefits the five big commodity crops (soy, corn, cotton, rice and wheat). 2 This does nothing for the millions of consumers that don’t have access to affordable quality, fruits and vegetables.2 This contributes to the, one in three people, expected to develop diabetes, health care costs related to diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke are rising precipitously, reaching an estimated $70 billion a year.2
The letter further urged congress to act on the $2 billion savings the Government Accountability Office had identified if crop insurance subsidizes were in place.2 Half of that revenue could come from limits that affect just four percent of grower in the program. The open letter allows all who are concerned to be on notice about the issues and to have firsthand knowledge that their representatives have been given this vital information. We now, more than ever and stay abreast of world events and respond to public policy that is not in your best interest. Knowledge is now so abundant; anyone who wants to have a voice can speak loud and be heard.
1. Levine R, Locke C, Searls D, Weinberger D. The Cluetrain Manifesto: The end of business as we know it. Perseus Book Group.
2000
2. An Open letter. Food leaders: The farm bill props up the wrong people. The Atlantic.
2000
2. An Open letter. Food leaders: The farm bill props up the wrong people. The Atlantic.