The Responsibility That Consumers Must Now Accept (Response #1)

I think it's amazing that people are better able to communicate with companies. Social media is a great social equalizer and a great way for people to get what they want. Companies decreasingly have to guess at what products will sell well and increasingly can simply ask the consumers, while consumer complaints are now more effective. 

However, while we celebrate the groundswell, we do not ask whether we who comprise the groundswell must now embrace greater responsibility. Because successful companies will give us most of what we ask for, there is a risk that we will embrace the ability to box ourselves in more and not consider anything beside our first wants. With M.D. Anderson, for example, I was first glad to hear that a hospital had finally decided to address wait times and happy that an ordinary patient could harness such power. It seemed like a victory of the person who matters over the cocky doctors at M.D. Anderson who are probably so taken with themselves that they feel all patient complaints are crude and baseless.


Then I began to wonder whether Mr. Perry was himself being a bit selfish and thoughtless by forcing M.D. Anderson into a situation that could cost it (and other patients) valuable equipment. Possibly, doctors and M.D. Anderson could become more stressed and overworked, or patients could find that worse care is taken of them, because of an increasingly myopic focus on wait times. Thinking a step further, will patients then complain about these consequences and what will M.D. Anderson do about it?


The reality is really somewhere in between, where the "groundswell" simply brings with it new risks - like any new movement - but I feel that the question of what responsibilities consumers take on with their newfound power is not addressed effectively in the book or in general societal debate. Because this trend is so new, it is probably natural that this question not be answered because we are in an initial euphoric state. The optimal result is that social media develops more as a conversation rather than as a way of listing demands, so that consumers can refine their requests and understand the consequences of such requests. This would be the most democratic and wonderful use of social media as a marketing tool.