We love to Tweet. We love to share. It appears to be a strategy for change but it isn’t. And we have to accept that.
These are strange times. We are able to reach millions with a single Medium post but each day a new post supplants the last. Today’s impassioned jeremiad – like this one – is tomorrow’s digital fish wrapper. A CEO can Tweet something noble today and it is gone a moment later. We can spread the word through Facebook but that site’s pernicious systems keeps it from spreading outside of your immediate zone of friends. In the end all we do on social media is akin to a fart in a crowded room – sure to annoy someone nearby but dissipated by the time it reaches the edges.
So I’m saying delete your account and do something.
If you are a programmer and you haven’t contacted your favorite investigative journalists, the folks at ProPublica , or anyone at your local paper, delete your account and do it. Journalists need your technical expertise to secure their devices, set up secure drops, and understand the data coming out of the countless leaks that are sure to come.