Did anyone see American Idol last night? I’m guessing that some of you did, considering that over 30 million viewers tuned in. Chances are, you tuned in to see how the show would fare without Sanjaya. But Idol was different last night.

Last night, the 30 million American Idol viewers learned what it means to “give back”. IdolsGivesBack is a two-part show that utilizes American Idol’s massive influence to make the world a better place. For every vote cast in last night’s contest, News Corp (the parent company of Fox, which airs Idol) will donate 10 cents to the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (up to $5m) to help children and young people in the USA and Africa. Tonight, in the 2-hour results show, laden with high-profile performances and appearances by Kelly Clarkson, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Gwen Stefan, Idol will ask the public to join their corporate sponsors in helping kids around the world (you can read more at IdolGivesBack).

So what does this mean? And why is it important? Surely, TV has been used as a fundraising platform for years — think of the Jerry Lewis Telethon and public television fund drives — but this is the first time I’ve seen a popular TV show being used for a purpose greater than generating thousands of dollars in Ad revenues. And with one huge leap and an armful of chutzpah, this leads me to believe that we are entering into what I’d like to coin “The Social Age”.

The Social Age, like the Information Age and the Industrial Age before it, is an historic period characterized by a distinctive feature. The Industrial Age moved society away from agrarian cultures toward manufacturing, particularly large-scale, energy-saving machinery. The Information Age showed us that economies could exist beyond trade in physical product through the increased production, transmission, consumption of and reliance on information.

The Social Age might be characterized by the incorporation of social values into everything we do – work, play, live — and I’m in hopes that we are experience its dawning.

I’m interested in investigating what this Social Age could be. Are we actually on the verge of its emergence? Why is this happening now? What can we do to accelerate its progress? And for that matter, what could cause its demise? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions. What I do know is that so much of what is happening in society — from globalization and social entrepreneurship, to social networking and environmental consciousness — is refocusing on the pre-historic values of community care and public good. Is it possible that we are heading toward a world where we care for each other, clean up our own mess, and take care of our parents WHILE prospering as a global society?

Perhaps in this high-technology, information-overloaded mechanized world, we are beginning to find our natural balance at last. More and more, people are wanting to receive both money and meaning from their jobs, wanting to contribute to the global community and wanting to live on a vibrant and sustainable planet where children everywhere have clean water and enough food to eat.

Could this be the beginning of a new age? Are social enterprise, social responsibility, corporate citizenship, personal conviction and social justice finally coming into alignment? Is it possible for us to prosper in a world where success is measured in lives saved, diseases cured and wars ceased?

I’m gonna spend some time thinking about this stuff. I invite you to join me.

Susanne