Were You 1 in 7? And, If So, Are You Ready to Up the Ante?

Were you a part of it?

Was it your post that took it over the top?

The “it” that I’m talking about is the Facebook’s new last Monday, August 24, 2015, that it had one billion users log in for the first time ever in one day…. 

Facebook’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg, commented with a post on his own Facebook page, saying that one out of seven people on Earth logged in to the social network to connect with their friends and family. 

That’s extraordinary, even hard to comprehend…I’m trying to wrap my head around the notion – the sheer size – the meaning – the potential power – given that I was one of those one in seven people…

Which led me to wonder what about the other one in sevens:

One in seven people who have texted something embarrassing that wish they hadn’t… 

A data point to be sure…but one that hopefully none of us can relate to…and one that can be juxtaposed to the Facebook news and pondered…

Are they the same one in seven? Or do the embarrassing texters not all use Facebook…because they are clearly texting more…or…you get the picture…

But then I wondered about the bigger picture…

According to the World Bank, one in seven people around the world live without electricity… 

And one in seven people in the world will go to sleep hungry tonight… 

Dare I go out on a limb and posit that the two one in sevens above don’t use Facebook? Might not even know what it is? Wouldn’t know what to do with it…even if they did? Would find it meaningless….

Bottom line…

We are in a privileged elite, one in seven…

We get to ponder the Facebook postings, use its platforms…comment, like, not like…meet up with folks we haven’t seen in years…share the good, the bad, the ugly, the stupid and the insipid…celebrate birthdays (as I just did mine) and in general hang out around our own digital water cooler on steroids….

Yet, we also plea for peace, ask for help, drive causes, raise money for important nonprofits, build awareness around critical issues…in short, employ Facebook as a social engine for positive change around the world….

Furthermore…I would argue…much like the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS…now going into its second year…the results are exponential…the power is we can make our 1/7 meaningful…aggregate so that the one becomes 2,3,4 or more…not just for the number and the bragging rights ”I went viral” but meaningful as in fighting for a cause…looking for a cure…demanding peaceful recourse…advocating for the rest of the seven…. 

So in honor of Facebook’s amazing achievement of one in seven (predictors of its demise pay heed), I hope and pray that we will remember the other, less fortunate one in sevens…and use the power of our social world – the power of Facebook and all its various possibilities…the power of exponential aggregation of focus – to make our social ills, disease, hatred, war, inequality…one in millions…if one at all…

"If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special."  â€” Jim Valvano

So…if we take our one in seven and aspire to use it well, one in seven that’s good…but seven in seven?

In truth, all the clicking and liking and sharing in the world is only meaningful if it pushes people to do something tangible. Unless we act — unless we click and shout — it’s all just so much Digibabble.

Let’s change the world.