The following article is almost entirely from this post on helpmyseo.com, and I’d like to thank the author(s) for their inspiration.

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the small municipality of Davos (pop. 11,289) with its picturesque, snow-capped chalets and its world-class ski-resort has always been one of those events, which outsiders have considered an opportunity for the powerful and the super-rich to hob-nob and plan how to create opportunities to make more millions.

Items on the agenda usually have to do with agriculture and food security, economic growth and financial systems so when they start this year’s list of subjects for discussion with topics such as “Is capitalism working? Will we grow again? Is the Western model still working?”, you know that there is a fundamental shift taking place in the tectonic plates of global power. A shift that’s been caused by a change in society on a global scale, itself [supported by] by social media.

For the heads of state and the financial elite meeting [in Davos] the concern is that the world has now entered what they readily acknowledge to be: …the “age of damage”, where “social media create a world of radical transparency”.

“Whether you are the head of an Arab country, the boss of BP, a misbehaving fashion designer or a footballer,” he says, “basically what we are seeing every single day is the power of people to make leaders behave the way they want them to be.”

The view espoused by the founder of the summit, Prof Klaus Schwab (see this BBC article), sounds like slogans we’ve heard in the Occupy Wall Street movement since the end of last summer: “Capitalism in its current form no longer fits the world around us,” which in itself shows the depth of change which social media has brought to our world.

Can We Remake Our World?

Inherent in the answer is the belief that, somehow, we matter. Up until the moment corporate conglomerates like Unilever and PayPal started to feel the sting of social media and entrenched tech companies like Blackberry in this Youtube video, began to fail, many of us thought that if we did matter, it was difficult to make our voice heard.

Social media is the ingredient that transforms everything.

The ability to suddenly find others like us and join them in making our voice heard is beginning to have an effect upon the world which stretches from politics to science and which, inevitably, encompasses business.

Companies love the fact that suddenly they deal with engaged, interested customers who can potentially offer two of the most fabled of customer traits: loyalty and word-of-mouth publicity by becoming enthusiastic brand ambassadors. The flip side of the coin is that companies also need to drop the marketing BS, stop treating customers like idiots, and respond to each one of them as a breathing, thinking human being who has an overriding concern that needs to be addressed.

This means that the adoption of social media and social media practices is only going to grow and this will continue to have a significant effect in the way we relate not just to the companies which we buy goods and services from but also every other company, institution and organisation which depends upon our custom or acceptance to function.

Now We Are All Responsible

Imagine the chaos that must have been the Athenian Democratic Forum where every citizen could hold forth with his views on how one of the most vibrant cities in the ancient world should be governed. Social media is revolutionary because it puts us in charge. As the recent SOPA debacle so clearly illustrated, we have the ability to sway companies, governments and individuals with the sheer weight of our voice. 

This is the moment when we realise that “With great power, comes great responsibility”.

We are, largely, united in our view that the world we live in, a world which, in many ways has been a digital extension of the 20th century, is not really working terribly well. Our governments and institutions are in serious need of overhaul and our guiding philosophies, like Capitalism, are in a state of degeneration. 

If we are looking for someone to blame here, we should look upon ourselves.

As Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm told Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman that capitalism was concerned only with growth and making profit, not responsibility (You can see his interview here). This is another one of those moments when we realise that Capitalism, left unchecked, functions as it should, to our detriment.

The time is ripe for human intervention.

For the first time in history, everywhere, we have more connectivity than before, the ability to make our voice heard and knowledge at our fingertips. As David Amerland, author of “Social Media Mind” points out, we are learning anew, how to engage with one another en masse. It may be messy but I suggest the signs are, we’re learning quickly – exciting times indeed.