Consumer empowerment is generally considered a positive force for social and political progress – holding politicians to account, reviving local democracy, transferring authority from narrow elites to the general public, democratising the creative process. But what about the disempowered? The people without access to the internet or the skills, confidence or willingness to take advantage these new opportunities? Empowerment will only transform society if it finds a mass expression and reaches beyond the activists and the technologically engaged.
Here are a few statistics to ponder:
- 19 million people in the UK are not online
- 8.4 million UK internet users do not use any form of social media
- 88% of UK internet users don’t regularly (once a month) participate in discussion forums, 80% don’t read ratings and reviews and 95% don’t post ratings & reviews
- 20 million eligible voters didn’t bother to turn out for the recent local elections in the UK
Amidst all the hype about social media and crowdsourcing, we must never forget that consumer empowerment is not evenly distributed across the population. Millions of people in the UK have neither the means nor the interest in checking out the reputation of their local schools and hospitals online, rating the performance of their GPs or satisfying a long suppressed creative urge, by creating their own movie or soundtrack. Unless we find a way to empower the currently disempowered, the exciting future promised by consumer empowerment will never be realised.