Rethinking the Platform

Brian Solis, analyst for the technology marketing firm Altimeter @ Prophet, in an interview with CNN yesterday, said that technology was not created with "the worst of humanity in mind." He also wrote, "Once you see an instance of someone using technology the wrong way, you have to rethink your platform." He was speaking in the aftermath of yesterday's shooting of journalists Allison Parker and Adam Ward, from Roanoke station WDBJ. Specifically, he was speaking to the manner in which the murderer used social media to post video of his crime alongside the words he wrote to justify his crime.

To their credit, both Facebook and Twitter removed the video within minutes of its posting, but not before many became unwitting witnesses to this senseless violence.  Solis' assessment that technology was not created with the worst of humanity in mind seems to share a similar perspective with the argument that guns don't kill people; people kill people.  One cannot deny that these "weapons" do not act on their own or that they have the capacity to hate, but in the hands of an angry, emotionally unstable person, they can produce devastating results.

In his angry ranting, the disgruntled former employee of the station in whose hands these weapons were used, praised the gunmen from Columbine and Virginia Tech whose violent actions preceded his. The worst of humanity? Yes, but perhaps worse still, is our unwillingness to meaningfully address issues of gun control, mental illness, and the pervasive abuses of technology that together present a growing threat.  

Rethinking the platform, as Solis suggests, has broad implications for each of these concerns.  Our unwillingness thus far to do so, however, seems to make us captive to the repetitive nature of "the worst of humanity."   I do not labor under the illusion that legislative changes will magically eradicate these threats, but responsible discussion and meaningful action across all societal lines can make a difference.  And the willingness of people of faith to live as examples of Christ's love, valuing and respecting every human life, regardless, continues to be our greatest hope.

Rethinking the platform implies action. May we find the courage to do so in word and deed.

Jim Abernathy