Voiceless

People are disenfranchised, left voiceless, for many reasons: convention, gender, permission, poverty, technology (or lack of it), misunderstanding, bullying, bemusement, culture, the list goes on and on. As organisations strive to be more connected, more Social, it’s important to remember that it’s not simply access to technology that can leave us voiceless: it’s normalised inequality, globally differentiated status of gender, and varied legal approaches to homosexuality. The world is neither uniform, not equal, and nor will it ever be.

Social Leaders fight for fairness: part of this battle is through their Social Capital: the ability to thrive in these new spaces and, more importantly, to help others to find their way. To help people find their voice, and to ensure that nobody is disenfranchised through lack of support within the community. It’s easy to focus on the levelling and enabling facets of the Social Age, but for all the ways that technology brings us ever closer, it can just as easily leave us further apart.