Social books

Just read an article on Huffington Post about the social networking sites for book lovers. I am on Shelfari for about two years, maybe, and, since recently, on Goodreads. I am updating carefully my shelves, with the latest books read. From time to time I am inviting or I am invited for connections and I am watching conversations in the groups of interest or posting random thoughts about books. Until now, the communication with my book mates is nil. A reason might be as well the limited possibility of interacting in real-life, via chat. And, as everywhere, people looking for dating or virtual adventure, are the most active.

Inspiration

For me, this story was the energy pill for today: an inspirational story about success and never giving up. Or success exactly because never giving up.

Book review: Connected. The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives

For business, personal or academic reasons, staying away of the power of social networks looks as a risky behavior. And the risk is not only of social nature, but might have as well consequences on the level of general health. The book is offering among the first, according to my knowledge, an evaluation of the implication of the network for the social, political, economic and health levels. Becoming in a relatively short time a human superorganism, the network - made up of various gatherings of friends, co-workers, people with whom we share various interests, potential mates - is creating new patterns and social habits and is involved in changing attitudes faster than before.

Although our exposure to information and though, to knowledge, is significantly different, the human qualities required to maintain the flux of information didn't changed at all, because, the authors outline from the very beginning (xi), "altruism and goodness are essential for social networks to grow and endure". And, in addition (xii): "Just as brains can do things that no single neuron can do, so can social networks do things no single person can do".

The pattern of the "everyday social networks" are following the "natural tendency of each person to seek out and make many or more friends, to have large or small families, to work in personable or anonymous workplaces" (p.13). Social networks embrace two fundamental aspects, according to the authors (p.16) - connection and contagion - and are operating according to four fundamental rules (pp. 17-26): "We shape our network", "Our network shapes us", "Our friends affect us", "Our friends' friends' friends affect us" and "The network has a life of its own". And, as "the taste of the cake transcends the simple sum of its ingredients" (p.26). Exploring different aspects - the political aspects during voting, the contagion effect of various behaviors among teenagers (as suicide or sexual experiences) - the resources for making life parterships and building relationships - we have a full picture of our networked world.

The conclusions are based on studies released in more than a decade, with a detailed quantive background. A bizarre exception, in my opinion, is the mention of the case of spreading back pain via social networks (pp.119-120): "Before the Berlin Wall, East Germany had much lower rates of back pain than West Germany, but within ten years of reunification, rates had converged to be the same, with East Germany emulating West Germany's higher rate". The authors don't mention any surveys regarding the medical situation, the working conditions or other specific affects, but the "psychosocial decontamination". This is the risk of exclusive and non-critical inductive thinking.

The novelty brought by the Internet relies on four radical modifications of "existing types of social-network interactions" (p. 275): Enormity - our worlds are becoming increasingly big and global; Communality - the possibility to share information at the level of communities; Specificity of our ties, based on particular interests and Virtuality, under the aspects of our different identities we can shape and assume in the online world.

"We are more connected for a reason" (p. 295) and the better use of our new skills, with the help of our brains connections we already developed during our long evolutive history, is an important asset for knowledge, both emotionally and socially oriented.

Share and the readers are yours

For a long time, I always found difficult to organize my posts and content for my blogs. Because always in a harsh competition against time, my desire to have an interesting and update blog being countered by my problems to deal with difficult professional and personal tasks. Hence, the focus on sharing link, instead of offering fresh and insightful ideas and content.

My chance started when I realize how important is not only to offer original content, but also to share direct experience. It is not always a need for a different style, but a concentration of your professional lessons learned and the importance of sharing. We are more likely to follow and be interested in what others did before us, about life testimonies. It brings a slice of life and authenticity to our words. From the point of view of the author, it brings ideas easily and offer many opportunities to expand your horizon. If you are a writer, a speaker, a consultant, use as often as possible the argument of the previous experience. Looking back, it is how you can inspire and create a direct connection with your readers or listeners.

Focus on who you are and only when you know exactly what do you stand for you will be able to influence the others and create role models and try to improve the world by your modest but necessary contribution. A life worth living.

Facebook+Skype-Love

The Skype platform will be incorporated to Facebook, allowing users to have real-time dialogues and conversations. I don't know yet how it is possible to have a selective choice of your Skype details: maybe you don't want to share all the information with all your Facebook friends? Or you want to use it without being bothered with various unwanted calls.

I discovered yesterday the last version of Microsoft Windows Live, newly launched and a bit controversial in terms of security. As a simple user, I discovered elements allowing a better organization of the contacts, the introduction of the video messages and the possibility to select your conversations. I will try to find and test more features over the week-end.

Geopolitics of Twitter

Here is a good article about Twitter in Brazil, outlining various trends and explanations for the high level of popularity of this social platform in this part of the world. I would like to read, and write too, more socio-political explanations about using social media. This is my to-do-list for this week-end.

More learning

The discovery of the week: Training Magazine Network.