Back in the olden days of social media (you know, 2007), blogger extraordinaire Chris Brogan used to talk a lot about being helpful (2011 UPDATE: he still does.). He said that one of the best ways to build community, make your clients happy, and be an all around superstar in the online and offline world was to be genuinely helpful to other people. He taught us that the rewards of being helpful will be more business, more successful projects, and ultimately, more personal satisfaction. Chris is a smart cookie. But you don’t need me to tell you that. I’ve been thinking about helpfulness a lot lately. I think a lot of people want to be helpful. I think they don’t always believe they can be helpful. With social media hitting the mainstream in a big way now, there are a lot of people (I mean, a lot more than just geeks like me), trying to learn about it and figure out what it all means. They are trying to understand how it fits into their business, their marketing plans, and sometimes, they are just trying to figure out the difference between an hashtag (#) and a reply (@). Many people think they need more help than they can give. But I think that’s simply not true. First and foremost, you need to realize that social media is not some big mysterious, complicated thing (and do not listen to anyone who tries to tell you otherwise). If you are already a marketer, communicator, writer, videomaker, or web designer, then you know to look at social media as an extension of traditional communication practices. While none of it should be completely foreign to you, especially if you’re already a communicator of some sort, even though there are still plenty of things to learn about how these new ways of communicating fit into the things we already know. That’s why I believe in what we are doing at Algonquin College around social media. We are spending little time focusing on what buttons to press, but we’re spending a great deal of time teaching people why they should be pressing them, and on how to incorporate these new media into the things they already know how to do well. There is plenty that you already do well. Maybe you’re a talented photographer. Perhaps you’re a TV producer. Or a writer, or a communications officer, or a baker, an electrician, or a carpenter. You already do that well…in fact, you probably do what you do better than most people, and as well or better than most people in the same profession as you, right? My point is, you have the opportunity to be helpful. You know things others don’t. And you can look online on any given day and see a stream of people who might need your help. They are asking questions you know the answers to. They are trying to learn things you already know. What a wonderful opportunity to be helpful. There’s one thing about being helpful that we must be careful of, and that’s being helpful with ulterior motives. Sometimes people are helpful for the wrong reasons. They want something in return. They “bank” their helpfulness, keep track of all the people they are helping, saving up favours so someday they can cash it all in. Sure, being helpful to others means that someday they may be helpful to you too, but that should never be your MO. People will see right through that. Instead, be helpful because you genuinely want to be. Do it by connecting good people to good people. Do it by sending someone a link that might help them find an answer. Do it by getting involved in projects and causes that you believe in and are a good fit for you and your ability to be helpful. But mostly, do it because being helpful makes you feel good. You have knowledge that other people can benefit from. You now have the tools to share what you know. What are you going to do with that power? [photo by MichielGaas]
Tips for Creating Better DIY Web Video
You’ve probably seen plenty of articles touting the marvels of online video. Video can be an extremely effective way to connect and share online. Just look at the success of Gary Vaynerchuk. He used his daily video show, WineLibraryTV to attract hundreds of thousands of fans and grow his wine business from $4 million to $50 million. It’s true! Just ask him. And there are many more like him. Taking the plunge into online video is scary for a lot of people. Video has long been seen as a very complicated, expensive and mysterious process. That’s because back in the old days, before the Internet, before pocket video cameras, it was. If you wanted to create video, you had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment, have specialized skills that you probably learned in college, and have hours and hours of time to devote. It simply wasn’t accessible for the average person. These days, most of us have at least one, if not more video cameras. We have web cams, flip cams, and cameras on our cell phones. Even our little point and shoot still cameras have video now. And the editing tools are plentiful too. Simple to use, free tools like iMovie (Mac) and Windows Movie Maker (PC) are standard equipment on your computer. So with all these tools available now, anyone can be a professional quality video maker, right? Well, not quite. Just have a look at YouTube and you’ll see that there’s still more bad video out there than good. Of course, the best way to make sure you have the best quality possible with your videos is to hire a pro (yes, shameless self promotion. : ) Unfortunately, for many small business owners on a budget, paying for a professional video company to produce simple web videos is not always an option. The good news is, there are some ways to experiment with DIY video in a low-cost, but effective way. But before you hit that record button, here are a few tips to give your videos a more professional edge. For the sake of brevity, let’s assume that the type of video you’re going to do is a “talking head” – so you, in front of the camera, talking or demonstrating something. In a later post, we can cover producing more complex videos with multiple shots if you like (let me know in the comments). Turn on the Lights! I can’t even count how many online videos are done by the glow of the computer screen. You know the type – grainy, underexposed shots of someone’s head, with the computer screen casting an alien-like blue light across their face. It just looks bad, and can definitely be a turn off to your viewers and prospects. Video cameras are much less light-sensitive than our eyes. This means, in order to have a nice, clear image with good colour, cameras need plenty of light. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to go out and purchase Hollywood-style lighting for your office. But do turn on the lights. Try to avoid overhead lights though – they can cast weird, harsh, nose-enlargening shadows. Shooting your video in a room that has lots of natural light is best. Just make sure that you don’t shoot with your back to a window – unless you want to be a mysterious silhouette! If you don’t have a lot of natural light available, then go to your local Swedish home decorating store and buy one of those $15 desk lamps. Place the lamp next to the camera, off to one side and point the bulb at your face (this works best if you’re within a few feet of the camera). Often that will be enough light to make a difference. If the background still looks too dark, get another lamp and put it behind you, and shine it across the wall./ Make sure you place it off to the side so it’s out of the shot and far enough away that it doesn’t create a bright spot in the camera frame. Decent lighting is one of the most important things you can do to create good video. So turn on those lights and repeat after me – no more grainy video! Turn up the Volume! The other thing that makes a video seem unprofessional is bad audio. If the sound is too quiet, or so loud it’s distorted, or if there’s a bunch of background noise, it can be very distracting and take away from your message entirely. Invest in a decent quality microphone – there are plenty of USB mics out there that will plug right into your computer. The Snowball is a popular choice. If you’re shooting with a camera that has a mic input, get yourself a small bug, or lavalier mic that you can clip on your lapel. One other option is to use a digital audio recorder, like the spiffy Zoom H4n. It has an extremely sensitive microphone and can plug right into your computer or camera. When you’re ready to record, make sure you try to reduce or eliminate as much background noise as possible. This means, turning off any loud fans (furnace fans, hard drive fans, etc.) and locking up the pets and the kids and the spouses for a few minutes. If you can, listen on headphones before you record. Microphones can pick up sounds our ears don’t always hear. So hear what your microphone hears, and then you’ll know that it sounds okay. Practice makes Perfect Presenting to the camera well is a lot harder than it looks. The pros make it look easy, but when suddenly you’re staring down the lens of this cold, inanimate camera, it can feel quite strange. It’s easy to freeze up, and seem sort of stiff and rehearsed. The only way to really overcome this is to practice. Everyone hates seeing themselves on camera and hearing their own voice for the first time. But stick with
Are You Using Time or Wasting It?
The more fast-paced the world gets, the more valuable our time seems to get. Most of us think we don’t have enough time. Many of us spend the time we do have doing things that aren’t getting us closer to our goals. We look at people who seem to get a lot done and wonder how they do it all. Sometimes, we’re even resentful of how much more time they seem to have than us. Sometimes, people tend to wear their time like a badge of honour (look how busy I am, I can’t possibly have time to do anything I WANT to do!) But the truth of it is, we all get the same 24 hours. Nobody gets more time than anyone else. The difference between those who seem to have all the time in the world and those who seem to be running out of time is in the way they all use their time. Let’s get brutally honest for a minute. You probably don’t want to hear this (I often don’t). You’re wasting a lot of time. Yes, I get it. You have 3 kids, a wife, and 2 dogs. Your Mother in Law is needy. Your email inbox is bursting. The boss is demanding. Hey, check it out, you’re normal! But even with all this going on, you’re still wasting time. How? I sat down the other day and made a list of 10 things I’ve been known to do that waste time. 1) Watching a Pawn Stars Marathon 2) Watching a Harry Potter movie for the 4th time 3) I Can Haz Cheezburger – ’nuff said 4) Angry Birds – ’nuff said 5) Doing the social media tab dance (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Google +) 6) Sleeping in beyond the 7-8 hours I really need 7) Worrying about stuff I can’t control 8) Getting sucked into other peoples’ drama 9) Eating food that’s bad for me 10) Checking my email too often Are any of these things on your list? (Substitute names of TV shows, movies, web sites and games for things that you are known to do). I bet you have one or two at least. Now, your first response to me “accusing” you of wasting time is probably going to be something along the lines of “Who the heck does she think she is?”. Nobody likes to be told they are wasting time. Second, you’ll start trying to justify your time wasting ways. (I’m exceptional at this step!) “I work really hard, so sometimes I just need a brain break – so I watch mindless TV or play a silly game.” “I was up very early every day this week, so I deserve to sleep in today. I need to catch up on my sleep.” “I’ve had a stressful week. I’ll start eating healthy again, right after this 2nd piece of cheesecake.” “It’s not wasting time on Facebook. It’s ‘research’.” “How dare you tell me I’m wasting time. Obviously you’re not that busy, or you’d understand.” Sound familiar? Look, we all work hard. We all have lots of responsibilities when it comes to our families and our work. But the days, weeks, and months go by, and we just get fatter, and more stressed, and more tired. We wish we could get back into playing guitar. We long to be able to find time to write. We really want to take that online course. We wish we had more time to connect with others. We hope to find a time to get our small business off the ground. Yet, when all our job-related work is done for the day, and the kids are in bed, what are we doing? Escaping into mindless activities. I’ve learned that the best way to get rid of the time wasters is to find something to replace them with. This is what I’m working on these days. It takes practice, and some days it’s easy to revert back. But I’m trying, one step at a time. Here’s how I’m replacing: 1) Watching a Pawn Stars Marathon Reading a non-fiction book 2) Watching a Harry Potter movie for the 4th time Watching an educational/inspiring documentary 3) I Can Haz Cheezburger Meditating 4) Angry Birds Taking a walk 5) Doing the social media tab dance Shutting off the social sites and reviewing social media blogs, or learning a new social media tool or technique 6) Sleeping in Getting up an hour earlier every day to write, think, and/or meditate 7) Worrying about stuff I can’t control Focusing my efforts on the things I can control 8) Getting sucked into other peoples’ drama Engaging only with people who have positive attitudes 9) Eating food that’s bad for me Doing Yoga and eating more veggies 10) Checking my email too often Writing more often Your replacements may be different than mine. But the point is to find a good behaviour to replace the bad one. Look, I’m not saying that we don’t all need a break once in a while. Sometimes, it’s okay to sit and watch an episode of a favourite TV show, or be entertained by a movie or a game for a while. But it’s when the behaviour becomes excessive (hours of games per day, hours spent on social media sites, hours of TV watching, sleeping too much) that the behaviour transitions from entertainment and fun to a waste of time. I’m working on using my time more wisely. Some days it’s harder than others, but I’m taking it one day at a time. We all get 24 hours. We only get this one chance at life. How are you going to spend it? [photo credit: H is for Home]
10 Things That Happened When I Took a Technology Day Off
Yesterday I took a day off from work, and from technology. I didn’t check email, Facebook, Twitter, or Google +. I didn’t answer my phone (texts or voice). Here’s what happened: 1) I spent 2 entire hours in the sunshine at the dog park with my friend and our dogs. 2) I read. A LOT. 3) I sat and looked out the window. A LOT. 4) I had an EPIC nap. 5) I slowed down. Time slowed down. 6) My head felt clearer. 7) Twitter, and Facebook, and Google + kept going. People kept sending me email. They kept right on texting, and calling. 8) Not one single person was upset that they couldn’t reach me. 9) My inbox did not explode, and nothing disastrous happened because I didn’t see my email. 10) I didn’t miss anything. The truth is, I knew all of these things would happen if I unplugged. The thing is, if we never unplug, we forget.
Why I Give A Crap About What You Ate For Lunch
When people are first getting into the whole social media thing, they’re often a bit cynical. “Twitter is just a bunch of people talking about what they had for lunch.” “I don’t want to know details of your kid’s stomach flu, dear Facebook friend.” “If I see another cute cat video on YouTube, I’m going to flip out!” Yep. As much as there is a world of amazing information, conversations and people to be found via social tools, there’s a lot of seemingly inane chatter going on too. Lots of people wonder what the point is. They say don’t understand why they’d want to know about any of this stuff. They say they don’t give a crap about what you had for lunch. It’s too bad, really. Because if it wasn’t for all that so-called “inane” chatter, I probably wouldn’t even use social media. Some of the richest conversations I’ve had have been about things like food, tea, pets, wine, and TV shows. Some of the best friends I’ve made, I’ve not made because I’m sitting around all day long doing “business” on Twitter. We’re friends because we’ve shared things about our lives with each other. Some of the most important client connections I’ve made, I’ve not made because of a tweet about my company. I’ve made them because of things like a tweet about the lemon meringue pie I baked last weekend. You see, what makes social media so rich and compelling, is not people just doing “business” and being “professionals”. It’s people being…wait for it….people. Bow WOW. The other day, I was cruising through some Twitter posts while I was waiting for my class to start. I came across a post that had been retweeted by my pal @PrincessDoubt. Being a dog lover, I clicked on the link immediately, and discovered that Jackson had gone missing at Bruce Pit, the dog park where I take our dog, Charlie. It broke my heart to know that Kelly (who is a stranger to me, incidentally), had lost her dog. I re-posted on Facebook and Twitter, hopeful that if enough people spread the word, someone would find Jackson and help him get home. The next morning, I checked in on Twitter to see if there was any news from @jaxdecor and found this: What a relief! It turns out Jackson was able to find his own way home. Miraculous! (Here’s the full story, if you’re interested.) I went on about my day. That conversation had nothing to do with business (though me, @PrincessDoubt and @JAXdecor are all business people). Nobody made any sales. Nobody got extra “impressions”. There was no “ROI”. There was just life. So why do I give a crap about what you had for lunch? Because to me, it’s part of what makes you, you. It shows me that you’re more than just your company’s mission statement. It shows me that you’re okay with letting your guard down a bit once in a while. It shows me that you’re a person, just like me. And I want to do business with people. Therefore, I give a crap about your lunch, the A your kid got on his math test, and that your dog got home safe. I care if you’re feeling sick, and I care when you’re feeling better. I care when you land a big client, and I care that you loved that movie you took your wife to last night. Make sense?
Impermanence
“We should not complain about impermanence, because without impermanence, nothing is possible.” – Thich Nhat Hanh The Buddhists remind us that everything is impermanent in this life. Nothing lasts forever, things are always in a constant state of flux. The seasons will always change, we will all live, then die. This is the cycle of life, and without it, nothing would be able to exist. Change is the very essence of life. Yet it’s the thing many of us fear the most. We like our lives to be like a big warm blanket, surrounding us, protecting us from the evils of change. We like our routines, our day to day. We like the way things were in the olden days. We don’t like to think about how someday, our warm blanket will wear out (because it will). We don’t like it when our routines get upset (what do you mean my favourite coffee shop closed down?). And we really don’t like it when things aren’t the way they used to be (especially when it comes to technology). The thing is, lots of people I talk to wish that things were the way they used to be. Before voice mail and email started to take up so much our time. Before cable TV and 500 channels and garbage reality TV. Before smart phones and video games started to distract us from our lives. Why, oh why did it all have to change? The Good New Days Some days, especially when technology seems to be working against me, I wish I could go back to the old days too. When the only distraction from my real work was the occasional phone call at my desk. When I knew that the Muppet Show would be on every Saturday night at 8pm, and that it was basically the only thing to watch, because I only had 8 channels of TV. When the world was a less noisy place with fewer people trying to push their message and sell me things I don’t need. And then I remember, that the world is impermanent. I remember that progress and change is a good thing. I remember that the very technology that I complain about has allowed me to tell my stories, expand my career in new ways, and become good friends with some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. I remember that without the changes that technology has brought that I wouldn’t have met my husband. I wouldn’t have this job. And I wouldn’t be writing this right now. This Too, Shall Pass For a lot of people of my generation and older, the incredible changes that technology have created in the way we communicate, the way we consume content, and the way we teach others, causes much worry and strife. We are overwhelmed, because it’s a huge shift in how with think about things. The generation gap between us and the GenY’s and the Millennials seems to be only getting wider, and we don’t even know where to start. So, fearing all this change, we retreat. We do nothing. We stick with the status quo. We go to what we know, instead of asking how we can do it differently. We fight for what once was, instead of fighting for what could be. We can no longer fear this change. Because impermanence is life, and resisting change will only cause more pain in the end. No, we must embrace the change. We must do what we need to do to adapt. Sometimes that means having to improvise. Sometimes it means taking a stand when things aren’t right. Often, it means leading the change too. Just think, in another 10 years (or less), the things you were afraid of changing today will have changed again. We will have to shift, and adapt, and embrace the impermanence of things all over again. Change is not going to stop. Which means, we cannot stop. We must keep moving into the change. It is how we will learn, and grow and be better friends, better parents, better kids, and teachers, and employees. Pretty exciting, eh? [photo by el patojo]
Redesigning the 21st Century Classroom
If you are a regular reader here, you’ll know that I talk often about ways I’m changing the structure of my courses to meet the needs of 21st century learners, while taking advantage of all that new and emerging technologies have to offer in terms of promoting engaged, relevant learning experiences. I’m often frustrated by the process. It’s not that implementing 21st century technology is difficult (it isn’t, as long as there’s a plan), it’s that often, the educational models are still stuck in the 20th century. Classroom Setup We still have classrooms with desks in a row, with a spot for the teacher at the front to lecture. Sometimes, if it’s a computer lab, the computers are set up perpendicular to the teacher, so the teacher can see the students (but the students can’t really see each other because there are giant computer screens in the way). Most classrooms are not set up for collaboration. If students need to work together, they have to crowd around in the narrow aisles between the computer stations, or leave the classroom altogether. There’s not much desk space around their computers, so doing anything on paper or with tools other than a computer becomes challenging. The 21st century classroom does not have crowded rows of desks. It does not keep most of the space at the front of the room for the teacher. The 21st century classroom is made up of groupings of desks that seat 4-6 students, facing each other. The teacher stands in one corner (where everyone can see) with a smart board. One entire wall of the classroom is a painted on white board. Students bring their own dry-erase markers and brushes, and can use that board whenever they want to work something out. In a computer lab environment where students don’t need large monitors, each desk grouping is equipped with a laptop and/or a tablet (depending on the needs of the program being taught there). Each desk has a charging station for mobile devices. In labs where students need to work on larger, more powerful computers (like the Multimedia Program in which I teach), the computers are set up around the perimeter of the classroom. The centre of the classroom contains desk groupings, so when students need to collaborate away from their computers, they have a space to spread out and do so. This is the kind of classroom I dream about. One that is designed for collaboration, student engagement, and freedom of movement and creativity. Re-visiting Policies The physical learning environment is one thing. The philosophical learning environment is another beast entirely. There are so many shifts that need to happen here that I hardly know where to begin. First, we need to re-visit our own in-class policies as teachers. Most teachers still forbid students bringing mobile devices (smart phones, iPods and the like) to class. They forbid use of Facebook, Twitter or YouTube during class time. Some schools block access to these tools altogether. These tools create too much distraction, therefore, many teachers feel the only way to remove that distraction is to eliminate it altogether. Restricting student access to technology is fundamentally the wrong approach. The solution is to teach appropriate use. I tell my students they are allowed to use their devices in class. I also tell them they are allowed to use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But I’m very clear on HOW they use them. No texting or phone calls during class unless it’s an emergency, and turn phones to silent always. Browsers closed during lectures unless I say to open to a specific page. I can see everyone’s screens on my instructor station, and telling them at beginning of the term that I can see what they’re doing, usually helps them to comply. : ) But I do encourage use of mobile devices and social networks for doing class work. I tell them to use YouTube to look up videos for inspiration, or tutorials. I suggest they find podcasts related to course material and subscribe and listen or watch to get a better understanding of concepts. I tell them to ask their Twitter and Facebook contacts for their opinions on various things. Students who use these tools on a regular basis are more engaged in learning, and ultimately are succeeding more. It’s that simple. In the bigger picture, institutions need to start to re-visit their policies as well. They need to implement more professional development for teachers, so there are fewer of us who are afraid to embrace technology and new teaching approaches. They also need to look at the technologies they have in place for distributing course materials, discover what isn’t working, and how new technologies like YouTube, Facebook, WordPress and Ning can be leveraged to deliver content in more effective ways. They need to work with the teachers who are on the front lines of emerging technology to better understand the implications of tech in the classroom and update school policies to reflect the new era. We have a lot of work to do. Classrooms and policies need to be re-thought, and teachers need the ability to be able to make fundamental changes to the way they do things, without fear of repercussions from their administration. The 21st century student demands that embrace all the potential that new technology holds to create a dynamic, engaged and vastly improved learning experience. And if we’re not ready to meet those demands, then I fear that we risk making ourselves obsolete. [photo by D3]
Overwhelmed By Social Media? Just Pick One.
Holy cow, social media is overwhelming! That’s probably the comment I hear the most from students and clients alike. The information stream has overflown its banks, and the flood is creeping up to our doorstep. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot we can do to stop it, either. As more and more people start to realize the benefits of publishing, and interacting, and creating communities, information is becoming relentless. It sometimes makes us feel like just shutting off the computer and the smart phone and forgetting the whole thing, because if we can’t see the flood, it can’t affect us, right? The problem with turning away from information is that when we do, the information keeps flowing, even in our absence, and suddenly we feel like we are missing out. It’s a tough challenge, to be sure. What often happens when we get overwhelmed by social media is, we freeze. We don’t know where to start, so we don’t start. Days, weeks, months go by, and we’re no further ahead. We feel like the online world is passing us by, but we are afraid to jump into the stream, for fear the current will carry us away. It doesn’t have to be like this. There’s a way to dip your toe in the water. And that’s to just pick one thing. You don’t have to do it all at once. You can just pick one thing, and focus on that for a bit. You can get up to speed, get comfortable, and get your feet wet. You can decide if you like it, if you want to keep going, or if you want to try something else. Here three ideas you can try to start. Pick any one from the list below, and just do that for the next week or so. Then, when you’re comfortable, move on to something else. Set Up Your Google Reader I always recommend listening and subscribing as a first step. Subscribing delivers the information you’re interested in directly to you, so you no longer have to go wading around in the busy stream yourself. You can take in the information at your own pace, and to get used to the flow of the conversation. You can get some insight to who the players are in your area of interest, and stay on top of the latest news. Google Reader is the best way to start listening, because it automates the process for you. You can subscribe to blogs of interest. If you’re not sure what is of interest, you can search on keywords and subscribe right from within the tool. Check it out at www.google.com/reader (you only need to set up a free Google Account to get started). Play with Twitter Twitter seems to be the one that has the biggest learning curve for people, which is ironic, because essentially, it’s very simple in its premise. On Twitter, you talk about what you’re up to, and share what is of interest to you, and other people do the same. If you find someone who is posting interesting stuff, you can follow them and then you’ll see what they are talking about in your stream. If they find you interesting too, they can follow you back and you’ll show up in their stream. You can talk to each other if you want, or talk to other people. Twitter is a conversation. The best way to get a handle on Twitter is to just try it. Start by doing some keyword searches at www.twitter.com/search (you don’t need an account for this). Click on profiles you find interesting, check them out. Once you’ve got the idea, sign up for a free account. Complete your profile (including posting a photo!) and search for some folks to follow. A great place to start is to search for and follow people in your city or town (you can do this by doing an “Advanced Search” and completing the “Places” field. Following someone on Twitter is like a handshake – when you follow someone, they get an email notification, so they can then click on your profile and check you out too, and follow you back if they wish. Post a few updates on your Twitter page. It can be anything from an observation you have, a link to some interesting content, or just saying hello. Twitter is a process, so start small, and spend a bit of time every day following and reading and reply to people if you feel inclined. You’ll soon find that the conversations start to flow! Start a Blog as a Playground Seriously. Just go to www.wordpress.com and sign up for a blog (it’s free!). Get that first step out of the way, even if you’re not 100% sure what you’re going to say on your blog. Get your blog account, pick a nice template, and take a look around. Run through these help pages if it helps make you feel more comfortable. The point here is just to get familiar with the idea of having a blog. Then, post something. It can be a few thoughts (maybe your thoughts on your journey into social media!), some photos from your vacation, or a video. It will feel weird to do this, if you’re not used to publishing content. You’ll feel like nobody is going to read it or care. You’ll feel like you’re saying “look at me!”. All this is normal. When I published my first blog post in 2007, I re-read it after hitting “Publish” and promptly took it offline because I felt so silly. Then eventually I put it back. And I did more. And people started to leave comments once in a while. And I got into great conversations, and over time, I connected with new friends, new colleagues and new clients. Start your own little small space, your little playground on the Web. Trust me, it’s worth it. Do it for yourself, and don’t worry about anyone else right
Control.
When you stop to think about it, thumbtacks are a great, low-tech way to control information. The things you tack onto a bulletin board are generally things that are important…documents you don’t want to misplace, photos of loved ones, phone numbers, and notes to remind yourself of tasks you must complete. Back in the days before we all had computers on our desks (yes, I remember those days too), thumbtacks were an essential tool for maintaining control. But space on our bulletin boards was limited. There were only so many spots on which to tack things. Once it filled up, we had to take things down, then sort, file, or trash. How times have changed. Nowadays, we tack things onto our computer screens. And because of the inherent nature of computers to be able to deal with a lot of information all at once, we tend to tack and tack and tack until we can barely see the important information anymore. This is especially true with social networks. When we’re first getting into the whole social media thing, we start small. We only turn the tap on a little; following a handful of people on Twitter, friending a few close friends and family on Facebook. We just tack a few things on the board here and there, and it’s quite manageable. But over time, we get more brave, and more intrigued by all the information that’s out there. And we turn the tap on a little more, and a little more, until there’s a steady flow of information hitting us throughout our days and nights. Our virtual bulletin boards fill up to overflowing. We spiral into a chaotic spin of information overload. We can’t shut it off, and no matter what we do, how much we try to pin new stuff to our boards, it just gets more and more full till we can’t see a thing anymore. And eventually, we run out of thumbtacks, too. Regaining Control of Your Board One of the complaints I hear more and more about social media is that people feel they are losing control – that the stream of information is just so vast that they can’t possibly keep up. On top of that, there’s tons of stuff in that stream that is negative, isn’t useful, or is counter-productive. I’ve had the most trouble lately with the latter. I’ve been filtering my social stream for some time. I have lists set up on Twitter to capture posts by certain people I want to see on a regular basis. I remove posts from my Facebook stream that I’m not interested in seeing. I keep my circles tight on Google +. My RSS Reader is lean and mean, containing only those items that I know I read consistently. The rest, if it’s important enough, will find me, because enough people will be talking about the really good stuff that it will eventually be in front of me. But I was still dealing with a tremendous amount of junk. People just being negative in general, spending their time harping on everything that is wrong with the world, or with social media, or with Ms. A-List blogger. Bloggers griping about how they’ve been done wrong, or how everyone else is doing it wrong, but not actually doing anything constructive themselves. I was allowing this information to bombard me on a daily basis, and it was dragging me down. I was losing faith with social media because I was allowing my stream of information have the control, instead of the other way around. Then I took that control back. While I’m not doing things like a great “unfollow” experiment, I am starting to be a lot more selective of what appears in my information stream. Too much negativity gets an automatic unfollow. Harping continuously on your blog about everything everyone else is doing wrong gets an unsubscribe. I’m not having any of it anymore. I’m not trying to be Pollyanna here. I know that life is not always sunshine and roses. I know that issues come up and discussions, sometimes heated, need to be had. I’m not opposed to discussion, discourse, and debate. In fact I encourage it, because that’s the only way the medium moves forward. But I’m just going to stick to the constructive discussions from here on in, thanks. Social media is a choose your own adventure game. You get to pick what you’re going to tack on your board, and you get to choose when to take it off. The control is not in anyone else’s hands but yours. It’s up to you to regain it. [photo by marioanima] —– Your browser does not support iframes.
Today Is The Youngest You’ll Ever Be
I borrowed that line from a quote I heard last night, while attending a stage show by the cast of MTV’s “The Buried Life“. Until two weeks ago, I’d never heard of The Buried Life, partly because I’m not exactly the target audience of most of MTV’s shows and partly because sometimes when it comes to mainstream TV, I live under a rock. I went to the show because it was put on at Algonquin College where I teach, and it was the kickoff of a campus-wide contest I’m helping to facilitate called the Campus Community Challenge, where students are being asked to submit videos talking about what they would do with $10,000 to improve their school and $2,000 to make their own dream come true. The grand prize? $10,000 to improve their school, and $2,000 to make their own dream come true! : ) Anyway, I was sitting in the audience, not really knowing what to expect from all this. A bunch of hipster kids running around the stage talking strangely and hip hop dancing? Maybe. My friend Patti and I were definitely the oldest people in the audience. Finally, the show started. Four clean cut, nicely dressed, young guys took the stage and began to tell their story of how they figured out over a Skype chat that they really wanted to do something with their lives after college. They came up with a list of “100 things to do before I die” and hit the road in an old RV to complete the list. Over the next hour, they told stories of how they got to sing the national anthem at an NBA game, and how they got to open the six o’clock news. They talked about how they rode bulls, and played basketball with President Obama. And then they talked about how they helped a man who had spent one third of his life on the streets get back on his feet by buying him a truck so he could run his business. And how they also helped that same man deliver pizzas to the mission he’d lived at. They also talked about how they got Toys R Us to allow them to take a group of terminally ill children on a shopping spree to get whatever toys they wanted. And the mood of the whole evening changed. What these four young guys were showing us was that anything is possible when you set your mind to it. Things that seem completely out of reach are not only do-able, but along the way new things will come into view and, with your nothing-is-impossible attitude, you can start to make real change in peoples’ lives. They talked very candidly and opened themselves up to the audience. They made themselves extremely vulnerable. Then at the end of their talk, they opened the microphones and asked the audience to come up and state one thing they want to do before they die. And they might as well have opened flood gates. Young students rushed to the mic to speak. And what they said was remarkable. Some told extremely emotional stories about friends they’d lost under tragic circumstances. Others spoke of wanting to forgive. Some talked of estranged family members they wanted to reunite with. Others shared that it was The Buried Life that inspired them to bigger things, to go back to school, to make something of themselves. There wasn’t enough Kleenex in the room. You know, I think us old fogies sometimes take for granted that anyone under the age of 25 is only interested in video games, hip hop music, and Facebooking all day long. But you know what? That couldn’t be further from the truth. Today’s youth are smart, eager, and outgoing. Some of them have come through incredible adversity, things like war and abuse and poverty. But they are now at school, and they are learning, and striving, and making a better future for themselves. They believe something we often forget – that anything is possible if you just try. Today is the youngest you’ll ever be. We tend to forget that as we get older, and stress and financial responsibility and kids and whatever takes over. We forget that we have dreams and goals and that often, just stepping out and being vulnerable and trying something is all it takes to get us one step closer. You don’t need a list of 100 things to do before you die. You just need one. Now go do that thing. [photo by Stuck in Customs]