All of this cooperation and goodwill in the social media points me to ponder if we are marching toward a lack of competition and originality. Or at the very least creating a group of people only able to clone ideas or break off crumbs to produce even smaller fragments. Much of this social cooperation seems to mask a willingness by many people to allow themselves to be herded by a smaller band of shepherds who think up the original ideas and pawn them off as something the "in-crowd" must do.
When animals respond to a threat by pulling together and moving as one herd, each individual strives to minimize their exposure to the threat. Self-protectionism therefore causes the collective to reduce its exposure to the threat. When individuals are challenged to think for themselves, it seems like lately they would rather position themselves toward the center of the herd; the individual latches onto another's idea, or cause, to appear more connected to the middle where it is safer.
What concerns me is the intellectual laziness encouraged by this groupthink, especially the definition Irving Janis identified as "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."
Basically, an intellectual malaise resulting in fewer people using critical thinking to question and ponder a statement or thought before commenting on or co-opting the idea as their own. Jumping on the horse before figuring out where it's going. Rationalizing, taking a moral high road, and pompous unanimity, are the sorts of traits that fall into this mentality.
Of course, if you're the one originating a meme perhaps you are practicing what Winston Churchill advocated, " If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it." However, I don't recall much being said anywhere about nibbling away at ideas until all you can share are crumbs. This is not to say that many memes have resulted in better ideas, but as of late, it seems to me that most original ideas have been tossed aside in the rush to latch onto a trend at the risk of groupthink.
I appreciate social media's power to encourage people to support causes. I just don't want to be pressured into joining if I don't want to participate. The underlying thread being that people should be able to come together and work toward a common experience if they chose to do so. But to fail to consider and think over a proposition before accepting it like a trout, "hook, line and sinker," seems to be like joining the outgoing tide just to avoid landing on the beach.
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