Inside the brain of Social Media, #1 - My brain and Erica O'Grady

July 16, 1:26 PMSF Boomers ExaminerSuzanna Stinnett

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Let's start with some helpful hints.

First thing to grok:
People in their 40s 50s 60s (Boomers and up) possess brains with exponentially more connections than youthies. (I hope you don’t mind my “youth-ie” term. I could say “youngsters” I suppose but that sounds like I’m really ancient. So.)

Second thing to grok:
When Boomers engage technology, their brains embark on massive neural adventures. We have so much more to relate to each new piece of information, due simply to our years on earth, that overwhelm is a given. Youthies probably experience simple fatigue before overwhelm. For Boomers, it’s a neural fritzing-out which darkens the synaptic forest and makes us hold our hands to our foreheads, closing our eyes and shaking our heads. (There’s a reason for that too. Rubbing your forehead restores blood flow to the cerebral cortex. Go ahead and do it. Right now. Vigorously. See?)

Third thing to grok:
Social media means just what it looks like. It’s social. It’s media, which is communication. Here, calm down, I’ll make a story.
 

    It’s southwestern Oklahoma in 1951 and I’m not born yet. But my sister is, she’s a baby in my mother’s arms, and her father is still in Korea. They’re having a little gathering of friends. People wearing sweaters come to see happy baby Kathy. They bring things they made like crocheted doilies, aprons, and some preserves. Chow-chow relish, pickled beets. The beet recipe is explained and everyone nods, that’s right, you don’t let it come to a boil.

    There’s a pineapple upside-down cake, and slices are being passed around.

    There they sit at the gray Formica table, sipping iced tea and talking about their lives. Now they ask about my father and Deanie pulls out the latest letter. A tiny black and white photograph falls out, a very tall young man in Navy blues on a big ship wearing a big, hope-filled smile. They pass it around. Deanie wipes her eyes. Pete writes he’ll be home next week, and everyone smiles and sighs and pats my mother’s arm.

    The social part is the people. The media is the letter from Korea, as well as the verbal exchange. One of the women goes home and sits right down and writes a letter to her brother back in Oswego, whom she realized she misses very much. It’s not exponential, but it’s media. Social. Media.

That’s basically what happened yesterday at Social Media Camp in San Francisco.

So this is a letter introducing one Erica O’Grady, who spearheaded this “BarCamp,” and gave an introduction to the early-arriving group there at the Swedish American Hall on Market Street. Erica owns Peanut Butter Media  and is without a doubt a Social Media innovator and disseminator of the first order. Her talk started with Tim O’Reilly,  transitioned through Quaker ideals (integrity, equality, community) as the tenets of desirable social media, and put us in the room together at the end with a Gandhi quote: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

One hour with one person, sowing connectivity of galactic proportions. No degree of separation.

The Boomer mind reels, industriously plugging new information into the super-rich areas of learning and experience acquired over the decades, struggling to bring it all to the surface together as relevant and worthy. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect the youthie mind is letting it wash over, allowing what sticks to stick, and moving on to the next thing. Just my idea there.

What is required to participate without losing one’s sanity?  

• Accept chaos.
• Renounce stress, which blunts the brain’s reach.
• Laugh, play, sing, and breathe, which keeps your growing neurons fresh and happy.
• Allow heart to lead. Learn what you love and go there.
• Lightly organize yourself to allow patterns to emerge.
• Allow yourself to learn.
• Take naps.

More on Erica O’Grady and Social Media in my next post.


See the video of Erica at Social Media Camp

See photos of Social Media Camp on flickr

Read Erica's blog

Learn about brain plasticity on Posit Science

Discover the inside world of Social Media on this blog

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Enjoy being a beginning blogger with Yaro