Is Social Media Hurting the Environment?

At a green branding conference this summer, I noticed that 90 percent of the audience never looked at the stage – instead, they were rapid-typing the content of the speeches into their tweets or blog entries.

I thought I was witnessing a glorious mass communication revolution. Until I looked over some shoulders, that is. “Speaker says green is here to stay,” said the screens. “Green is good for business.”

A woefully anemic version of what the speaker was saying.

While flexing their social media muscles, the audience was missing out on 95 per cent of the message. Technology had turned them into stenographers – and not particularly faithful ones. There was just tapping – no synthesis, no analysis, no thinking.

The inclination to chatter is a grave flaw in social media, and it impedes us in trying to solve serious problems. The fight against climate change, for example, benefits nil from a fire hose of blather. It needs focus.

I’m no Luddite. I understand and admire the power of social media. It provides shades of content, it’s visceral and raw, and it’s authentic. It can connect me instantly with like-minded thinkers.

But it doesn’t replace real action, real connection, real commitment. Becoming a fan of Al Gore on Facebook may make me feel like I belong, but it isn’t doing a damn thing to save the world.

It does, however, illuminate a disturbing phenomenon. We have become a society that is terrified of being left out.

WE FEEL BETTER KNOWING that hundreds of people follow our tweets. We’re comforted by our community of Facebook friends and fans.

This substitution of real friends for online ones speaks volumes about the isolation technology can enable. Unfortunately, this isolation is the opposite of what the environmental movement needs.

David Suzuki says a major contributor to environmental destruction is our disconnection from each other and the environment. He calls it the shattered world syndrome.

To illustrate, imagine our society is like safety glass that’s been shattered. Each of us occupies a tiny shard – physically close to our neighbour, but disconnected.

When we turn on the tap, we don’t know where the water came from. When we flush the toilet, we don’t know where the water goes. When we hear the clarion call to make our contribution and fight climate change, we pull back into our cocoon and start retweeting.

We need to rediscover our commitment to our fellow earth-dwellers.

Studies show that the number one reason people enlist in the armed services isn’t for government or country. It’s because their friend or brother enlisted.

That’s strong stuff. People will enlist to potentially sacrifice their lives because their sibling or friend did.

Imagine if we could harness that sort of action for the environmental movement.

Truth is, we can.

I would sacrifice plenty for my friends or family. I’m certain you would, too.

It’s time we all rediscovered the power of that sort of commitment. Instead of sitting in front of our screen, we should be jumping on our bikes with our kids, getting involved in public forums with our friends, looking politicians in the eye and telling them that our families are a force to be reckoned with.

We have to live the mission. Not type it.

Marc Stoiber is VP Green Innovation at Maddock Douglas, a company that brings innovations from mind to market for clients that include 25 percent of the Fortune 500. At MD, Marc helps clients apply the green lens to innovation projects. Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter