I thought I knew, but I don' really know all that much...

It's one thing to understand what drives the groundwell - it's quite another to dive into it and turn those forces to your advantage - - (Lee and Bernoff, 2008)

Reading Groundswell made me realize just how much more I need to learn. I thought I knew about social media (although I still don't really get why people tweet, I really don't) but there are so many things I still haven't explored. I didn't know that French prefer DailyMotion over YouTube. I didn't know so many people like to Stumple Upon. I also had no idea I could be so entertained myself with someone's else's ideas of the most awesome 1000 things. I was fascinated by the different categories of involvement in social media: there are creators, spectators, collectors, joiners...etc. After this reading I asked myself what I was: wow, I realized I'm a joiner/spectator/inactive. I join, I have a facebook. I'm a spectator, I stumble upon from time to time or read blogs ocassionally. I'm inactive, I don't really 'produce' any social media data - at least not beyond facebook (something I should probably cut down on anyways).

So I said "Aha, well, let me do some surfing" (I do really talk to myself like that). I recently discovered mashable (I briefly mentioned it last time), so I went on their website. Great idea this was. My Celitronica identity that is committed to understanding how social media can be used for social change immediately jumped onto an article on about a website that drives users through the homelessness experience. "No, that's not possible" I thought (to myself, again). But yes, as surreal as that sounds Spent does this. If you dare play, then you will be asked to make tough decisions about what to do with the little money you have, about what job to take after you have been rejected at others, about where to sleep.

The point of the game, according to one of the creators is not about disparaging the user but creating empathy: "You have to make the best decisions you can. The people that are in these situations don't do this because they're stupid but because they're stuck between a rock and a hard place". I played it. Although it is hard to remove one's engrained idea that this is "just a game", Spent was scary. Just a little imagination is needed to really fear about the next step to take in this virtual like. There is no doubt that if anything, Spent makes one think and that's a good first step for social media users that are interested in innovating ideas about how to bring media to good use. We'll see if Spent catches on.

Last blog I wrote briefly about Play for Change - an initiative to bring people throughout the world together through music. February 6th, Bob Marley's birthday, was the ideal day to do this again. And so, Play for Change made this amazing video that I wanted to share - it's just wonderful.