Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

Recently, I gave two conferences at Wordcamp and Buenos Aires 2.0 offering some of my ideas concerning social networks and the Web 2.0. In this post and in a few more to come I will try to share with you the main points I made there. First, a question: Is the use of social networks dangerous?

We frequently hear from those who are reluctant to the use of web 2.0 tools that they do not do so because they find them dangerous. Don’t upload your pictures to Flickr!, they say. Don’t publicize your activities on Facebook, Twitter or Friendfeed! -they add- as someone might use that information to harm you or even kidnap you!

In my opinion, this argument is senseless. At least in Argentina, where the probability of dying in a car crash is MUCH HIGHER than the chance to be kidnapped, let alone die as a result of a kidnapping. We all know that, yet nobody gives up using cars.

I’m not talking here about the chance of suffering one of those random abductions that occur in great numbers around here. Still, their occurrence has very little relation to whether you publicize your pictures or post your status.

All these tools make interacting with people all over the world an incredibly easy task. This is exciting enough to justify not giving them up for mostly unjustified fears; just like the fears that hold back e-commerce in some countries because people refuse to put their credit card number in websites.

I think these attitudes result from mental reluctance to change. It is much easier to say “I don’t use them because it is dangerous” than to recognize that some of these technical innovations are simply “not understood”, or “too difficult for me”.

Just like what happened with Computers when they first appeared in the market (or with the Officenet catalog when we started our business), the person who has never had one can not imagine what to use it for or how can he benefit from it. A person who adopted it and became accustomed to its use does not understand how he/she had ever lived before without it.

I believe in always embracing change, even when I don’t fully understand it or how it might affect our lives. Because I believe change is good and that, after all, it will end up somehow making sense.

I have to admit that, at times, change frightens me. But, isn’t it my purpose to get out of the comfort zone anyway?

Photo: Murky1

Translation: Ines Hercovich