Digital peer pressure

“You’re using it wrong.”

That’s how culture develops, of course. That’s why no one uses ALL CAPS IN THEIR EMAIL ANY MORE.

Culture develops online at the speed of light. Every interaction tool comes with peers to interact with, and quickly, those tools establish the norms of interaction.

As a result, there are a ton of rules and more arriving every day. Culture forms around us, then changes and then forms again.

Often, the peer pressure pushes people to fit in, to go along, to become a bystander.

But the digital peer pressure that pushes us to use social media a certain way can also have more positive effects. It can challenge us to understand the details in that Do lecture or to edit a Wikipedia article to make it better. Digital peer pressure can push us to level up.

Some corners of the internet are getting coarser, crueler and dumber. But others, where the social ratchet turns in the other direction, keep getting better.

The simple rule for these communities is:

If you can make things better, do so. 

Independence brings freedom, but also responsibility.

Because good ideas spread faster than ever, there’s an imperative to listen and learn and then to level up. Because we can see further, there’s a responsibility to do something useful on behalf of those we are now aware of. And because we have more leverage than ever before, there’s the obligation to make big promises and then deliver on them.

It’s easy to see peer pressure as a bad thing, something that only delinquents are subject to. If we let it, though, we can use it to push us forward, to make things better.


The altMBA is built on the idea of positive digital peer pressure. By surrounding you with people intent on leveling up, we normalize the idea that it’s possible to create better outcomes.

Here’s a brand new short film that shares what we’re up to… Our early application deadline for the upcoming session is tomorrow.