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Ivanna, a young woman living in New York City, leaves her $300 partner (T-Mobile’s version of the iPhone) in a cab. Over the course of the next few days, the story of 16-year-old Sasha, who found but refused to return Ivanna’s lost phone, mobilizes New Yorkers for the New York City police to arrest the 16-year-old. years and recover the stolen Sidekick. and return it to Ivanna.
Ha, you say?
No way would one of the busiest police departments in the country get involved in such a trivial problem; 10 years ago, maybe even 5, you would be right, but not today.
This is a true story, albeit a remarkable one. Without the persistence and zeal of Ivanna’s friend, Evan Guttman, a programmer in the financial industry, the story would not have made it to Digg and then to the front page of the New York Times.
And Ivanna wouldn’t get her phone back.
Clay Shirky, in his 2008 book, Here everyone comes, applications the story of the missing phone to illustrate several points:
- There is no animal more social than man.
- Due to the rise of social media, the barriers that once prevented the average man or woman from mobilizing staggering numbers of people to accomplish the unthinkable are gone.
- Collective action can now be achieved on an unprecedented scale.
- Sociology has long taught that the psychology of individuals cannot be applied to group behavior; people in groups behave in ways that cannot be predicted by studying individual minds.
Many theorize that the so-called Arab Spring began with the overthrow of Egyptian dictator Mubarak. Also, many young Egyptians are called Facebook apparently because their parents believe that it was ordinary people like them, talking, planning and organizing on Facebook, that brought about the downfall of Mubarak and his rule.
More than 50 years ago, we witnessed the effects of young people coming together to change the world.
And change the world, they did.
Imagine if we had the technology available today?