I had decided to go back to my daily routine again as a new years resolution, so here I am and here you are giving me the encouragement that tells me I’m doing the right thing.

It is such a strange but gratifying process. I will continue.

Nicolai, Copenhagen

On CNN a week ago, they had an article about new companies needing to work with instant, global communication mediums. These mediums such as facebook and twitter can spread the word and make or break a reputation in a very short time. And, the scary part is, the spread can be beneficial to all or extremely damaging to all without any way to direct it. Items that go Viral is a good example.

After the second world war, I believe it was GM that said (sic), ‘We decide what the customer wants;’ a very authoritarian attitude for sure. That attitude has not held up in the last 50 years of manufacturing with customers wanting it their own way and computers allowing manufacturing to make individual items cost effectively.

A problem with this type change in the manufacturing sector is dealing with hard goods, actual physical products. It is not really cost effective to make each item different. To give the appearance of have it your way, electronics companies tend to design something and then change the “skin”. This gives the user the appearance of getting it the way they want it, but it is really just the same item everyone else has. For example, on cell phones they just change the outside look and the programming. The insides are the same electronically, the plastic outside may have a different cover and the programming may swap button functions on the screen, but the guts of the phone are the same, yet one version fetches a higher price.

It seems to me the old adage, perception is everything, is absolutely true. People perceive they have something different, even though it really isn’t different, and they act upon this perceived difference. Up until now, politicians and the whole patriarchy have known this and known how to maneuver this. Marketing and advertising is all based on this, but with the advent of the social networking, this is changing. Everyone is scrambling to figure out the next best online marketing scheme, the next best phone app, and the people who are using the social networking system, to me, seem to be totally lost in the impulse or the bells and whistles. It seems to me that we are seeing the patriarchy fall because of the connection based system but the users in the connection based system don’t understand connection. So far, it seems they are lost in reaction.

I see this as a place for the buddhist awareness of the mind. People need to see that knee jerk responses are generic, from the mind and can be categorized. No one is special in these responses. All of us have these knee jerk responses. No one escapes having these. Until people become aware of their knee jerk responses, the social media will create something similar to mob mentality where the result is unpredictable, not because it is a well thought out strategy, but because people are just reacting to whatever, whenever and however.

Over time, if people can learn the principles of Buddhism, even if they don’t practice it, they will at least become aware of when they are knee jerk reacting and when they are consciously choosing. Once that starts to happen, in my opinion, the social media will change allowing for connected-ness to beneficially replace the patriarchy.