Social Media Video: Lolcats vs Worthy Projects

Mashable apparently declared June 30th Social Media Day. I may be slightly belated, but I say good for them. If dental health gets a whole month and one day is given over to talking like a scurvy sea dog, why shouldn't Mashable grab a bit of free publicity while celebrating technology that has changed everything from our morning routines to the course of uprisings?

But what ultimate impact are social media going to have? Will this technology just be a way to crack each other up with cute pictures of cats, or can the trillion hours or spare time collective humanity has to donate each year be put to a better use? In other words, how do we make fewer Lolcats and more valuable collections of human experience and knowledge? Writer Clay Shirky weighs in.