population

by Ian Huckabee
Dec 2008

Updated

Social Media Marketing

14,000,000 percent

Okay, here's the fun stuff. The population of the world is over 7 billion people. A huge number. My seventh grade math teacher demonstrated how big a billion was on the first day of class by telling us that not a single one of us was ever likely to count to a billion, and then she promptly gave us the opportunity to try. For the last twenty minutes of class we all sat counting silently, and when the bell rang we were encouraged by our teacher to continue counting until we reached a billion. But she cautioned it would take 30 years.

Seven billion. Consider this. Fifty thousand years ago - when man began creating language and made that Great Leap Forward - there were less that half a million people on earth (million with an "m"). That seems like a long time ago, but some say human history began as many as 7 million years ago. Others say it began when man started walking upright, which was around 4 million years ago. For the sake of argument, let's go with 4 million years.

If man is 4 million years old, then those 50,000 years represent 1.25% of the age of man. And if there were only half a million people walking the earth 50,000 years ago, and there are over 7 billion people today, then that means in the last 1.25% of the time of man, the population has increased 14,000,000%. An unfathomable number. Here it is spelled out so you'll know that it's not a typo: 14 million percent. (If you disagree with my starting numbers, change them to what you think they should be. You'll still arrive at a staggering conclusion.)

Thomas Malthus was onto something. There are more people alive today than have died in the history of man.

Society at Large

What's this got to do with Social Media and Search Engine Marketing? Well, these numbers can certainly trivialize any discussions about Twitter and Reddit, though we still love the logos. What about natural resources consumption? Outposts in space? Enough iPods to go around?

As far as the Web goes, Internet use is far outpacing population growth. Nearly 1.6 billion people around the world are now on the Web, about 24% of the world's population, according to www.internetworldstats.com. Between the years 2000 and 2008, Internet use grew by 342%.

The world over, people are becoming increasingly influenced by people in lands far away. Our elbow room is shrinking, and the hustle and bustle of a plant manager in China's Guangdong province can easily cause a reaction from someone shopping for a handbag in Iowa. The Internet is no longer simply the gateway to well-organized files, web pages and cool videos. It's a lever for inspiring dialog and driving communication, for spreading opinions and their underlying facts, for creating understanding, compassion and empathy. It's the starting point for addressing time-sensitive and relevant social issues.