Correlation or causation? I don’t know. We do know that behaviour is learned. And what we learn or don’t learn is how we go through life. (I may still be a dork but a lot less so than when I was young and knew much less.)

Very much a sidebar, but another thought-provoking piece from Chuck Klosterman in Esquire who writes about boxing’s irrelevance in contemporary society.

http://www.esquire.com/features/chuck-klostermans-america/chuck-klosterman-0208

John - thanks for the reading suggestion. Tyler left me a copy of “The Cult of the Amateur” (with words of warning), but I think I’m going to pick up your suggestion first. It seems very relevant in the context of this event and looks like fascinating read.

Steve - I liked your observation and I wish it was one that I had thought to make. Do you think the fickle behavior digital encourages is bleeding into real life?

Dave

And, while digital enables community it, at the same time, isolates.

People don’t operate the same way we would when face-to-face. We take far more liberties with others’ humanity when, for example, we’re relegated anonymous in our automobiles or untraceable (and so unaccountable)by fibre optics and wireless connections.

A modern tendency to the boorish and ignorance of proper behavior should really come as no surprise, when you think about it.

I did not attend, but 2 of my employees did. By the time they returned I had already read about the incident, and much of the online coverage had hung Lacy out to dry. My people did not attend the panel, but they said the buzz they heard was that Lacy and Zuckerberg were both to blame.

Or who knows? Maybe the whole thing was a setup and the SXSW folks are a lot slicker than we give them credit for. If that wasn’t the case here, you better believe it will happen down the road.

But yes, the mob mentality and sense of entitlement and self-importance is pretty scary.

For another take on that, you might want read “Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It” by Thomas De Zengotita. In this book, the author examines the “flattered selves” that we place at the centers of our own little worlds and just how much that sense of self-importance distorts our perception of reality.

Thanks for the feedback (and for the book, Tyler).

Alfonso - I think you make a good (and impassioned) point that’s supported by others. Perhaps one of the side effects of digital culture is this kind of behavior, although I wonder what causes it. Is it a type of hubris on the part of the audience? It looks a lot like the type of impatience I hear teachers and professors talk about in modern classrooms. Regardless of the cause, I think the audience bears some responsibility.

Could preparation have helped avoid this problem? I think so. Had the participants taken the time before hand to discuss what they thought their audience might want and let those things guide the discussion, I’m sure it would have been more fruitful. In much of the facilitation work I do, I talk with key stakeholders to find out what they consider to be critical topics.

Again, thanks for all the feedback!

It is great to see constructive analysis on a positive note from Dave Robertson and David Armano. There are things to be learned here (know your audience for example).

From my understanding of the interview it doesn’t seem that Lacy understood who her audience was, particularly in what kind of questions they wanted to ask Zuckerburg.

Since her understanding of her audience was flawed the crowd became well, unhappy, and in short order turned into a mob and tore her down. As you noted, they (and a great deal of the posts I’ve read about this) are kicking her while she’s down.

That is not to say I don’t think she could have handled it better, but that is more skill and practice needed as Dave pointed out. The ability to think on your feet and to respond was just simply lacking.

So while the crowd was ‘juvenile’, she probably should have had an idea that they might act in that manner if they became upset or annoyed. The fact that she responded defensively rather then just honestly asking what the crowd would like to focus on and changed the flow of the questions to that track.

Still, a live interview with someone who rarely gives them, live crowd, her mistakes are pretty understandable, even if they could have been prevented.