This morning Facebook and Twitter are having trouble!
Twitter Is Down!
Who knew that I would miss them…but I do. Somehow, now that I am in a new city, these social media are my new way to check in with the rest of the world–the new one in Houston, and the old one of my friends around the world. I realized that neither Twitter nor Facebook are cutting down on my interpersonal face-to-face interactions, but they are augmenting them. Now if a friend is on vacation, I can see their pictures and imagine a little bit what they are experiencing…I really love it! I would not consider myself an addict yet, but I would say that the new technologies have enhanced life…overall, I think if used wisely, they can add something!
Life is Amazing! Live Well.
Anna Grassini
www.lifeinbalancecoach.com

So the March numbers for Facebook and Twitter are in–they are experiencing record growth! What is this phenomenon about? Will you join the bandwagon? What will you do with it? If you are participating in the fray, what is it doing for you?
I don’t think ignoring technology is a wise move–it only makes you obsolete and old. A former UT professor of communication said to me that we should be careful not to join just because we want to be younger–I agree. The reason to join is not to become who we are not, but to participate in an interesting cross-generational dialogue. We stay young by learning. Facebook and Twitter are good places to learn about others and maybe about ourselves.
There are plenty of articles out there to guide us through the process. But the most important question to ask is: what will bring to the table? How will you show up?
Life is Amazing! Live Well.
Anna Grassini
Here is a good article for starting on Twitter…
http:/Marketing With Twitter

My graduating class only had 35 kids…very few indeed. One of my best pals back then was a dynamic young woman named Johna. For 20 years, she and I lost touch. Then recently, through the use of linkedin and facebook, we reconnected. As luck would have it, we found ourselves in the same city at the same time and we both had time for a dinner. I went with some trepidation–what would it be like to see someone whom I had not talked to in 20 years? We really used to be best friends when we started college, and then our lives drifted.

Well, suffice it to say, that our experience of meeting again was a magical experience of reconnecting. We both concluded that this was the right time to meet each other…and how curious to see how in 20 years our paths had at times been parallel and at times not, but we are in similar good places in our lives now.

So, to those of you out there reading, what are you doing to use social media to reconnect person to person? How is the experience for you? I’d love to hear!

Life is amazing! Live Well.

Anna Grassini
www.lifeinbalancecoach.com

Thanks to Jill (see her cool blog at mysolis.com )or pointing out in a comment to my previous thoughts that the stuff of web 2.0 can be great for business. I completely agree with her! There are new opportunities for people to use Facebook, Twitter and the like to provide useful information–and, no, what you had for lunch does not really qualify…but maybe a cool new lunch place would! Yet, I still see people, especially older ones, that resist the technology change.
I wonder, moreover, if the arrival of “wiser” folks on Facebook will make the younger ones migrate to other “hiding places”! The recent story of the person who twittered about her new job offer at Cisco (as published recently in a NYT story) and presumably lost it before she even started is currently making the rounds on the internet….and is a reminder that the young users could teach the old folks how to use twitter, and the older folks could use the young ones what are appropriate limits !!!! As usual, everyone has something to offer–if we just remember that we all have our strengths!

Life is Amazing! LIve Well.
Anna
lifeinbalancecoach.com

So I have been doing more reading and thinking about the new “social media”…especially relevant after my recent arrival on Facebook!. According to a NYT story on the Austin Festival South By SouthWest, folks attending the most successful part of the festival are not musicians…they are people dealing in the new media!!! Says the NYT, however, that the folks creating content seem too busy to have time to consume it! And in any case, I wonder…what does this content really mean? Do I really gain from knowing that my 21 year old nephew is “stoked” about an upcoming weekend of sports? (Which, in my old fashioned mind, might mean simply a weekend of watching too much television!) What about the old friend who thinks Florida is too pretty? What am I gaining here? What is the content?
It feels to me like I am entering a whole new culture. But the question for me is, does the connection pay off or does it simply mean a huge loss of privacy? What do the young people out there think? What does it mean to be truly connected?

Life is Amazing! Live Well.
Anna

http://www.lifeinbalancecoach.com

At the urging of my young Italian cousin, Luisa, I have recently joined FaceBook.   I have been on LinkedIn for a while, thinking of it as a professional network.   The function of LinkedIn has been to reassure me that as I face a huge transition in my life, there are people to whom I am connected–and that those bonds will follow me wherever I go.  But what does FaceBook do?   My husband John asked me “do you like it?”  The answer is…I don’t know yet.   Clearly, it makes me notice the difference between being old and young.  There is a whole new lingo to learn (really, what does it mean on FaceBook to tag someone? To poke them?) and then there is a level of discourse that does not really conduce to deep conversations.   I still have to find my way around it.  

Would love to hear what other people are getting out of these social networks and how they use them….

In the meantime, I remain confident that 

Life is Amazing! Live Well.

Anna 

http://www.lifeinbalancecoach.com