Does social media create a global community?

Social media has connected people in ways unimaginable a generation ago, and creating a global community has been one of its defining aspects. Everything from political debate to petitions protecting endangered species to appreciation of trailers from the latest Hollywood blockbuster can fire the collective imagination of the world-wide web. Trending topics can be seized upon, and video footage can swiftly go 'viral', unimpeded by national boundaries.

While this arena has provided an invaluable resource for marketing, with popstars becoming overnight sensations thanks to YouTube hits - and shares - but the global community also benefits from more culturally significant mass communication. Scientific breakthroughs can be disseminated. International events, such as natural disasters or war, can generate waves of empathy, provoking millions of characters of reaction.

Of course, as with many other examples of human interaction, social media can also be abused - and when this occurs on a global scale it requires free societies to carefully monitor the situation. Jihadi groups operating in the Middle East may routinely decry the trappings of 'decadent' western civilization, yet they enthusiastically embrace the technologies that provide a platform for their vile propoganda. All that social media is doing is reflecting life in its myriad forms, and the latter example is still regarded as an aberration compared to the immense benefits offered by trans-global communication.