Saviour of the balance

There is a school of thought gradually teaching students that user generated content is the saviour of balance, equality and objectivity in the pit of modern consumerism and bias. The lesson being taught goes something like this:

As 200 million people log onto their blogs and write their opinion pieces, 200 million voices add themselves to the choir of global understanding.

Each album uploaded to Flickr is like a flourish in the fresco on the ceiling of the Cathedral of Life, painting a picture of the world as it really is.

Every user who logs on to Wikipedia to contribute pours forth a stream of enlightenment, filling the cup of knowledge from which the world loves to drink.

And finally, as we, the consumers of this content, log on to Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, Wikipedia and Current TV and are exposed to this myriad of alternative thoughts, ideas and opinions, a new dawn of understanding breaks and the sun rises on a world that is informed and has a balanced, reasonable and fair consideration of the issues at hand.

Does that sound like the world you woke up in this morning, or should I just roll over and go back to sleep?

I acknowledge that the picture I paint is perhaps somewhat sarcastic and very narrow minded in its position, but there does seem to be an aura of reverence surrounding user generated content and it’s ability to re-educate the world one blog reader at a time. But I have two key problems with our newfound saviour of the balance.

1. The voices being added to ‘the choir of global understanding’ are the voices of those privileged enough to be living in a free society with access to an Internet connection. Developing nations in Africa and throughout Asia cannot provide this avenue of expression to their population to allow their voices to be heard. A simple Google search reveals the furor of discussion surrounding the access and freedom of speech granted to those living in China. And although America may be considered to be the home of free speech, it appears that it is not that simple for those serving in their armed forces . We may be getting masses of opinions, but we are not getting the opinions of the masses.


2. Consumers do not actively seek or retain information or opinions that are contrary to their own. We have a tendency to engage with content that either supports or reinforces the views we hold, or further extends the understanding we have of our opinions. The theory of selective retention holds that

... people remember more accurately messages that are closer to their interests, views and beliefs than those that are in contrast with their values and beliefs. We are selecting what to keep in the memory, narrowing the informational flow once again.

There is a limit to people’s openness to change. Creating behavioural and attitudinal shifts is not as simple as posting an entry on Blogger. If it was, advertisers, marketers, market researchers and public relations professionals would be out of a job.

So while user generated content definitely makes positive steps towards a more enlightened society, and undoubtedly provides a broader range of opinions and ideas than was previously accessible, there remains within me an element of doubt as to the potential for ‘restoring of the balance’ through the current model of user generated content.