Change (term of the year?)

Change, the one word use most frequently during the past election year. People cried out for "something different" to break with the status quo. There are numerous ways that you can define this "change" that was implied. Some would argue if this is a good idea or not. Is it change for the better? Change for the sake of change? Or as the implication was intended, change for the better or to depart from ways that were not working.

Having established the idea of change, one thought of political change that was only discussed in the techie circles and maybe a few news stories was the new change in campaigning methods. We discussed in this class briefly, but the connection that was made to young voters (the digital natives and even some digital immigrants) by text messaging and connecting to the Facebook and MySpace demographics was beyond what most could have anticipated. Sure the idea was to get votes, but who would have guessed how powerful this effort would be?

Maybe Shirky could have? Shirky mentions that "Group action gives human society its particular character, and anything that changes they way groups get things done will affect society as a whole. This change will not be limited to any particular set of institutions or functions. For any given organization, the important questions are 'When will the change happen?' and 'What will change?' The only two answers that we can rule out are never, and nothing." (p. 23).

I just hope that I can replace the "change" I have with paper bills! :-)