My Google search tells me 6,697,254,041 was the population of the world in 2008. We aren’t shrinking. I find 6,697,254,041 a difficult number to wrap my head around in any kind of personal way. I know that populations are growing faster in some areas of the world than others, but I’m convinced we can start to glimpse the signs all around us if we start to pay attention.
It might be easier to cognize the change if you’re “older”. By that I mean, if you’ve been around a long enough time and have experiences of different places at different times such that when you re-visit them – some number of years later – the change is obvious. No longer those vast open spaces you remember – the Mall of America has replicated itself into areas that didn’t used to have enough population to install traffic lights. Everywhere I go, there seem to be more people.
Today as I was using LinkedIn to find people to help with a particular project, I started to notice the thousands of companies I’ve never heard of that employ thousands, if not tens and hundreds of thousands, of people. (Thank God). But it gave me another glimpse in to just how myopic my ordinary view of the world is.
How do we wake up to the reality of a population of 6,697,254,041? Are we connecting the dots between climate change, the impending shortages of water and food, and that number of living human beings that need water and food? We face global crisis, insoluble by any one organization, any one country, any one answer.
It’s clear to me we need to begin to connect the dots ourselves – individuals in organizations reaching out to like-minded individuals in organizations we don’t yet know. The only way I know how to do that is through social media and its potential is revolutionary.
Come join me in talking with like-minded individuals we don’t yet know at Justmean’s Social Media, Technology and Change conference, November 1st in New York City. Check it out at http://www.socialmediacsr.com .
Carol Baroudi's Blog 