I was recently asked to write a piece for the upcoming WeMedia conference in Miami on how media can help us move beyond click-and-go advocacy to real and meaningful change. For me, the Internet has provided me with a platform to share my ideas with the world. Here’s the piece I submitted — you thoughts are welcome.

For a long time, I’d known that I was one of those people who had something to say. I just hadn’t been able to figure out what it was. That was until April 2007 when I was watching American Idol. For the first time, everything crystallized in my head. No, I hadn’t suddenly decided to sing out loud to save the world. But I had found my voice.

On that night in April, I was one of 30 million people who tuned in to watch a special episode of American Idol called IdolGivesBack. In the two-part show, Fox utilized American Idol’s massive influence to make the world a better place. Introducing viewers to the plights of underprivileged children in the US and Africa, Idol provided a chance for the average American to engage in changing the world. For every vote cast in that night’s contest, News Corp (the parent company of Fox, which airs Idol) donated 10 cents to the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (up to $5m). An additional $55 million was raised through call-in donations by viewers. This was a stunning event. Never before had I witnessed a popular TV show using its influence for any purpose greater than generating thousands of dollars in ad revenues. And here was American Idol doing just that. I was moved, compelled and excited. And in a flash of inspiration, one huge leap and an armful of chutzpah, I conceived of “The Social Age”.

The Social Age (www.thesocialage.com) is more than my personal blog. It has become my own personal movement. What Idol helped crystallize for me was that thing that I’ve known I wanted to say. That the world is changing. That people and companies and governments are starting to realize that the world is not just flat (to quote Tom Freidman), but that it is interconnected in a way that we’ve never witnessed before. That consumers are discovering that the shoes I buy here might really cause harm to a child in Bangladesh. That the skies we pollute here, cause problems for people over there. And that collectively, we can do something about this.

The Social Age is about this “doing”. If 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, then The Social Age might be characterized by the incorporation of social values into everything we do – work, play, think, live. Every decision we make, from how we conduct business to how we treat the homeless is viewed differently in The Social Age. By being conscious and curios, we make different, more informed decisions. We understand the collective outcomes of our actions and hopefully, yes hopefully, we behave differently. At least, this is my hope.

As so, I launched The Social Age, and in doing so started my own movement. With the power of the Internet at my disposal, I, sitting from my apartment in downtown Boston, have been able to educate, appeal to and move people to think differently about their place in the world and the next era of human development. My readership is organically growing. As I continue to write about topics that are currently floating about in the universal consciousness, I have found a following. Small, but a following none-the-less. And I am stunned. I have people write to me about looking for a more “social age” job. I’ve had people blasting an Internet scammer who isn’t very “social age”. And I’ve had people express their desire to find their own personal money versus mission balance in life.

And so I continue to build my movement. From my tiny corner of the world, I have harnessed the power of the Internet to make my movement come true. And as people join me on this journey, I realize there is nothing we, together, can’t do.

My dream? It’s lofty, I’ll admit. I dream that someday the history books will refer to the period in time after The Information Age as The Social Age – a period of collective consciousness, interconnectedness and community. Perhaps someone will note that it was coined by me at the beginning of the 21^st century. Hopefully, it will be embraced by all.