ICT and the brain
Panel member Nick Booth has blogged about the potential of excluding people as a way to make networks stronger, larger and more effective. He begins by citing research from the early 1990’s which found a correlation between the size of a human neocortex and how many others we can succesfully relate to:
Evolutionary Psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar of Liverpool University and others predicted that human’s would be able to maintain about 150 acquaintances – and this figure matched research on the size of neolithic villages (‘primitive’ comunities tend to split once they reach a figure of 150 members) and more modern personal networks.
We can recognise far more people that that – but the reality is that our brains only have the capacity to maintain a certain number of relationships – each of various qualities.
This has literally mind-bending implications for people working in an ever more connected world and for how non-profits might use to web 2.0 technologies…..
He goes on to suggest that VCOs could be more picky about who they engage, in order to develop more in-depth/meaningful relationships. An interesting thought at a time when more charities are using technology to attract ’supporters’ - as Nick puts it, “people can now effortlessly associate themselves with your cause (press here if you want to join our ‘club’).”
Back to the brain, and I was recently reading a piece on how technology is changing the manager’s brain in which Susan Greenfield argues that “the massive growth of electronic media is fundamentally altering our brains and central nervous systems ” and that “as people’s brains evolve, their motivations and aspirations will shift accordingly. Our standards of satisfaction and fulfilment may be very different in the future”.
Of particular interest to our social networking strand is this excerpt:
“We assume that people want to work for other people - but that may not be the case in the future. At the moment a lot of our pleasure is derived from status, but I think soon that will be challenged - people just won’t be motivated in that way. It’s just another arms race and I think we’ll evolve to a point where people aren’t so status-obsessed.”
This could spell the end for traditional, monolithic corporations, she says. As the various rationale for forming large companies - for example, to reduce the cost of gathering in materials - become less important, smaller, more virtual units will emerge that are independent but work through a variety of networks of other organisations, she insists.
Though we had a debate recently about whether networks are as good as organisations at getting things done, for example, achieving social change.