Social Media Does NOT Corrupt Human Interactions | Liam Hackett | Part 4 of 6 — Transcript

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1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:09but now I now look to Liam hacket to
3. 0:11continue the case for the
4. 0:19opposition uh well firstly thank you so
5. 0:21much for having me here this evening to
6. 0:23talk about something that I'm really
7. 0:25passionate about now before I go into my
8. 0:27points of why I'm such a huge advocate
9. 0:29of social media it's worth me just
10. 0:31giving you a bit of a background on me
11. 0:32and my story and how I got into the
12. 0:34world of social so here I am aged 15
13. 0:37I've been bullied for 10 years at school
14. 0:39I didn't really have any mates I'd been
15. 0:41hospitalized had no social skills
16. 0:43whatsoever but I had a computer and uh I
17. 0:46turned to Myspace I feel really old
18. 0:48talking about myspace right now
19. 0:50hopefully some of you remember it but I
20. 0:52I turned to Myspace and uh I posted this
21. 0:55bulletin and in this bulletin I said hey
22. 0:57look I'm being bullied and I talked a
23. 1:00bit about my experience and literally
24. 1:02overnight I had hundreds of people reach
25. 1:04out to me people were telling me about
26. 1:06their own experiences of being bullied
27. 1:08people were giving me advice and some
28. 1:10people were even asking me for advice
29. 1:12and so here I am this 15-year-old kid
30. 1:15very nervous no confidence on the
31. 1:17internet and suddenly I'm talking about
32. 1:19an issue of bullying and I realized
33. 1:22quite early on that this was far greater
34. 1:24than I was and it was something that
35. 1:25affected so many people and so this
36. 1:27community of practice started to organ
37. 1:30Ally grow as young people started to
38. 1:32come together many of which had never
39. 1:34met anybody before the PE people from
40. 1:37across the world were coming together to
41. 1:39give and share advice and to talk about
42. 1:41the real life issues that they were
43. 1:43having and that was the infancy of ditch
44. 1:45Shel which today is one of the largest
45. 1:47anti-bullying charities in the world now
46. 1:49to put that into perspective in the next
47. 1:5112 months we're forecasted to help 1.5
48. 1:54million young people to overcome
49. 1:56bullying and related issues and that
50. 1:58leads me on nicely to my my first point
51. 2:00the fact that social media is such a
52. 2:03powerful tool for anybody who is
53. 2:05considered vulnerable in our society now
54. 2:07think about this for a moment we've got
55. 2:09a 14-year-old kid who's growing up in a
56. 2:11small town in this town they're the only
57. 2:13black person or the only person in a
58. 2:15wheelchair or the only gay person 30
59. 2:18years ago they had nobody who was
60. 2:19similar to them to talk to for example
61. 2:22when I came out as gay I already had
62. 2:24friends on the internet who were gay who
63. 2:25could give me advice and support I
64. 2:28didn't have that offline social media
65. 2:31enables anybody who is considered
66. 2:33vulnerable who's being bullied or going
67. 2:35through a difficult time to instantly
68. 2:37connect with people who are either going
69. 2:39through that at that time or have been
70. 2:41through it to give and share advice and
71. 2:43that should never be overlooked it is so
72. 2:46powerful social media enables us to
73. 2:48construct new friendships most of us in
74. 2:51here will have friends who we've met on
75. 2:52Twitter or Facebook before real life
76. 2:54situations in fact so many of my friends
77. 2:57my colleagues my partners have been met
78. 3:00through social media ditch the label is
79. 3:02an organization that has grown online we
80. 3:05help people through social media we help
81. 3:06them through games and through our
82. 3:08website we've grown our organization
83. 3:10into an international organization an
84. 3:13international movement through the power
85. 3:15of social media which leads me on to my
86. 3:17next point about the fact that social
87. 3:19media significantly increases social
88. 3:22Mobility now we've talked about the
89. 3:24women's March uh this evening and how
90. 3:26millions of people internationally were
91. 3:27engaging in that this was a community
92. 3:30that was built through social media but
93. 3:31there's so many other cases that we can
94. 3:33relate to think about the ALS ice booket
95. 3:35challenge that raised millions of pounds
96. 3:38for charity it created huge awareness
97. 3:40for such an important cause and that was
98. 3:43all through social media now the smaller
99. 3:45examples there's two Ms in Essex right
100. 3:47now who are campaigning for the Oxford
101. 3:49dictionary to redefine their pree preuve
102. 3:53view of an Essex girl Now offline
103. 3:56they're not particularly influential but
104. 3:58what they have is a m message that
105. 4:00resonates with other people they've got
106. 4:0210,000 signatories on this online
107. 4:04petition and what is so great about this
108. 4:07is we're now seeing young people and
109. 4:09everybody can become an activist the
110. 4:10historic socioeconomic barriers to entry
111. 4:13no longer exist young people are now
112. 4:15affecting change in their schools in
113. 4:17their communities in their countries and
114. 4:19even in the
115. 4:20world and I think as well when we're
116. 4:23we're talking about the internet as a
117. 4:26tool for Social Capital social media
118. 4:29enables people to come together to share
119. 4:31ideas to share a new vision for the
120. 4:33world you can talk to pretty much
121. 4:35anybody on social media whether they're
122. 4:38your colleagues world leaders
123. 4:40celebrities activists it is so so
124. 4:43important and I think as well you know
125. 4:46many of us in this room will have moved
126. 4:48away for University some will have taken
127. 4:50a gap year we've all pretty much been on
128. 4:52holiday people move away parents move
129. 4:55away friends move away it's a fact of
130. 4:58life and when many of you graduate
131. 5:00you'll move abroad and work somewhere
132. 5:02else and I think what is so important is
133. 5:04the fact that social media enables us to
134. 5:06maintain relationships that we have in
135. 5:08our lives 20 years ago it was very rare
136. 5:10that you would stay in contact with
137. 5:11people that you went to school or
138. 5:13college or university with now social
139. 5:15media enables you to do that and
140. 5:17sometimes those interactions are passive
141. 5:18but that's okay it was my uh my birthday
142. 5:21last week and I had a birthday party and
143. 5:23uh I had 40 friends who came to this
144. 5:26cocktail party and some of them I hadn't
145. 5:27seen in 6 to 12 months because you know
146. 5:30when you're a professional you're trying
147. 5:32to manage your work life balance you
148. 5:34just don't have the time but we've been
149. 5:36able to maintain those friendships and
150. 5:38those relationships through the power of
151. 5:40social media and that's something that I
152. 5:42think we can all relate to in here but I
153. 5:44think ultimately when we look at
154. 5:46relationships regardless as to whether
155. 5:48not they're online or offline they're
156. 5:50tough it is a case of give and take
157. 5:52people have fallouts people break hurt
158. 5:54people backstab it is a fa a fact of
159. 5:57human nature and I don't think social
160. 5:59media corrupts uh human interactions I
161. 6:02think the humans who are engaging in
162. 6:04those interactions corrupt it I think
163. 6:06actually social media is such a powerful
164. 6:08tool that has revolutionized
165. 6:10relationships it's revolutionized the
166. 6:12world it's given people who otherwise
167. 6:15wouldn't have a platform vulnerable
168. 6:17people a platform it's enabled people to
169. 6:20access support that they wouldn't other
170. 6:21get otherwise get for example we know
171. 6:24that half of young people who experience
172. 6:25bullying don't tell anybody because
173. 6:27they're they're scared they're
174. 6:29embarrassed they have a lack of faith in
175. 6:31support systems what we found at digital
176. 6:34Lael is overwhelmingly young people are
177. 6:36far more likely to access and gain
178. 6:38support online that is so so important
179. 6:41everybody deserves to feel part of a
180. 6:43community regardless of what their
181. 6:45demographic is and social media breaks
182. 6:47down those socioeconomic and the
183. 6:48geographic barriers to entry and I
184. 6:51hugely support social media and I think
185. 6:54it's a very powerful thing thank
186. 6:58you
187. 7:10[Music]