[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/06\/30\/social-media-outrage\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/06\/30\/social-media-outrage\/","headline":"Social indignation, the new opiate for the masses","name":"Social indignation, the new opiate for the masses","description":"By reducing action to chatter, social media is killing our chance for change, but can we use social indignation to rally change? ","datePublished":"2016-06-30","dateModified":"2021-12-27","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/jamie-anderson\/#Person","name":"Jamie Anderson","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/jamie-anderson\/","identifier":119,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/249ae804963762332acd20e644bfe865782bee3d64ee223d5dd6a28e548b47b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/249ae804963762332acd20e644bfe865782bee3d64ee223d5dd6a28e548b47b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/thumbnail-46edf7379c33907b9adccf26cc4d5405.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/thumbnail-46edf7379c33907b9adccf26cc4d5405.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/06\/30\/social-media-outrage\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw","name":"ICE COLD IN ALEX. \"WORTH WAITING FOR\"","description":"Four ice cold lagers","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ouYKeeTz7Yw\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ouYKeeTz7Yw\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ouYKeeTz7Yw\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ouYKeeTz7Yw\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ouYKeeTz7Yw\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2011-03-07T18:24:15+00:00","duration":"PT1M27S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ouYKeeTz7Yw","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCNSvlgTKLa7tUqmZdynRIIQ#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCNSvlgTKLa7tUqmZdynRIIQ","name":"Peter Hamilton","description":"","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_ncLDZZuLaWmxthmPjJRFFu0jJe8SaotUAUpulERvElcg=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":235446}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ouYKeeTz7Yw#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":917}]},"about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/social-media\/","name":"Social Media","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_media","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q202833"]}],"wordCount":664,"keywords":["Marketing","Social Media"],"articleBody":"If the last few months has taught us anything, it\u2019s that we still care. You only need to look at a Facebook feed or what\u2019s trending on Twitter to see we care. We care about our leaders, about refugees, about politics, war and inequality \u2013 social indignation is rampant. We care about bees and global warming and cute fluffy animals.Most of all we care about each other. There\u2019s a huge amount of passion out there.What\u2019s dangerous though is where we put it. There\u2019s no shortage of awareness \u2013 of some very real problems in among the conspiracy theories \u2013 but the biggest threat to humankind is our apathy. It\u2019s the way that when our blood really starts to boil, we\u2019d prefer to click to send an automated signature to a petition and then share our outrage on social media rather than actually do anything about it.In 1970, when Gil Scott Heron wrote The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, the world was a very different place. Society still reverberated from the civil rights struggles of the previous decades, students and unions were active and powerful, and even if you didn\u2019t necessarily have a chance of winning you\u2019d still go out and fight for your right to be heard.The idea of revolution and people power was very real. This is the world I was born into, where the physical fight for freedom and liberty was in living memory.      When she talks, I hear the revolution: It’s no longer enough to hold the line                Consumers are driving the next great social change via their wallets, and no amount of advertising, PR, or marketing budget can overcome the power of consumers committed to purpose.      Social indignation: A requirement for societal change?My recent post on demystifying digital transformation\u00a0got me thinking about how differently my parents\u2019 generation used their energy and channeled their outrage. Growing up in the shadow of the Cold War, when people protested nuclear weapon proliferation, they took to the streets. It was a case of put up, shut up or march. Without social media, there was no other real option.It says something that two of the most active people then, Bernie Sanders in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, are ones we champion today as showing real authenticity.Not long ago they were dinosaurs, crusty old irrelevancies with a history of protest and dissent, but their passion for truth is something in very short supply among the politicians, lobbyists, and spin doctors who rule the corridors of power.Small wonder they\u2019ve picked up so much support. They\u2019re like a tall drink in a hot country. Worth waiting for. Welcome relief that means we can stagger on a little while longer. The challenge they face though is whether they can galvanize people sufficiently to get them to the polling booths in the real world.The insidious side of social media is that while it allows us to spread awareness and have indignant conversations about modern society\u2019s various failings, it\u2019s all talk.Bread and circuses, the opiate of the masses, whatever you want to call it \u2013 you\u2019re right. Sure there are amazing social tools like Ushahidi, which help bring clarity to crisis, but as long as we\u2019re only sharing outrage on Facebook, nothing\u2019s gonna change.There will however always be a place for direct action. The Junior Doctors\u2019 strike in the UK \u2013 and its support from the public \u2013 has shown that when government simply can\u2019t be trusted to do what it says it\u2019s going to do, it\u2019s really the only option remaining. Otherwise, if we live in a world where we share outrage online, maybe we should vote online too \u2013 at least it would be easier to get people to the ballot.  B2B, B2C, B2B2C.Unlock growth. Drive revenue. Scale effortlessly.\u00a0Take a tour of commerce that clicks\u00a0HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2016","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"06","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/06\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"30","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/06\/\/30\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Social indignation, the new opiate for the masses","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/06\/30\/social-media-outrage\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]