This is single handedly the best peice of work I have seen describing Social Media by @padday:
How it is different from your real life.
How you need to manage it as a result
What Social Networks need to change to help you
It identifies the fundamental problem with our misunderstanding of who we are. We believe we have one identity and many friends. e.g. The ‘Stay true to yourself’ street corner philosophy is predicated on the idea that you have one self. You are many different people, depending on the circumstance.
This is an essential read if you are in social media marketing, looking to understand ROI & how social media is used for influence.
All of these have one thing in common. They are triumphs of people working towards meaning (except maybe the Slinky). When it comes to the doing Great Things we are capable of incredible action.
The problem we have is that our lives have become fairly mundane, full of frustration or boredom. How often have you been sick of work, bored by TV or frustrated with the same old routine? We crave meaning. We crave more than just what’s on TV… but we don’t take action.
The need for Great Things
Yet we live in a world that still has some pretty big problems.
Jane McGonigal has figured out why some of us would rather spend time playing video games than solving these problems. It boils down to the fact that video games inspire people. They are works of art that infuse urgent optimism with a sense of purpose.
You are capable of doing Great Things. What you need is to be inspired…
Art creating action
Art gave us an Inconvenient truth, Live Aid and Live 8. While well intentioned, they were low on real action, low on real results…
What if instead of putting on a concert, musicians collaborated with video game artists to create a game world where we solve hunger as the aim? What if instead of an artist making a statement through their graphic novel, they used that storytelling technique to engage us to solve water shortages in a virtual world?
We are not motivated by solving problems unless we have a reason to. We don’t lack desire. We need meaning, we need to be engaged. Our art provides rich meaning, while our lives provide little.
The art of engagement
Jane talks about how she believes humanity is teaching itself how to collaborate through social networks and online games. We did it with facebook and beat Simon Cowell. We did it with twitter and the #Iranelection.
Yet in Copenhagen we put our trust in politicians to solve problems. As well intentioned as I believe Copenhagen was, a small group of career politicians are not as capable as the rest of humanity.
Art moves us
Avatar made the climate argument in a more attractive way. Rather than entertain us, art now needs to engage us. Instead of Copenhagen & and Inconvenient Truth, we need an Interactive ‘Avatar’ that helps us develop solutions to our real world problems.
For example Evoke starts with a Graphic Novel of a food shortage. How will you help solve it?
Do you think art can convince people to do Great Things? Do you have other examples of Game Theory solving problems? I’d like to know your thoughts…
Thanks to everyone who came to the #CozyTweetup and helped make it more fun than should be allowed on a Wednesday.
The creative input of #likeminds was genuinely exciting. I hear interesting things about Education projects, a Fashion project & exciting things at Temple Works. The key to the event [...] Continue Reading…
Leeds local & Caffeine superstar Ben told me an amusing story about how he found himself dictating on evernote to avoid the risky business of typing while driving. This kind of charming tomfoolery is not unique; there are plenty of people to share your knowledge with here in Leeds. Why [...] Continue Reading…
The anxiety caused by those 9 words can be terrifying. If you’re one of The Lost Generation especially, there is no easy way out, there is no shortcut home. You have to stand out to be noticed.
Where do you fit in the world of work? How you can be useful? Will you ever find a career you enjoy?… Since The Lost Generation post, some tremendous work has been going on behind the scenes. Read on.
We have a small team of very talented people pulling together research [...] Continue Reading…
From an excellent discussion on Scott Gould’s blog, @juliewalraven raised that one of the biggest barriers most of us have for engaging, is the ability to ask probing, useful questions. Which got me thinking…
Your response to The Lost Generation has been phenomenal, thanks to all of you who shared your experience and frustrations with the current jobs market. What is absolutely clear is you’re not alone in the big hole between education and your career
Key Themes
The messages are coming from your experiences in industry [...] Continue Reading…
