Social Media and “The Social Animal”

Thanks in advance for reading this article. I appreciate your interest and hope you get a few good ideas. I'd love to hear what you liked. Please write me a little COMMENT below. Start a conversation. Tell me what you think, and I'll reply. Promise.
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Social Media and “The Social Animal” might seem unrelated, but let me tell you:  there’s a strong connection.

Published earlier this month, David Brooks’ “The Social Animal” could revolutionize how we use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, and all the other social media.  I think it will.  More in a minute.

“The Social Animal“’s main point is to show that our subconscious mind is enormously influential over our behavior, much more than is our conscious mind.  I recommend you read this book, or at least read about it.

I find “The Social Animal” fascinating reading.  David Brooks is a wonderful writer and a witty, clear-thinking journalist.  In this book, he urges us to take a second look at how we think people make decisions.  After a broad survey of recent scientific literature, he suggests we’ve been overestimating the role reason plays and overlooking the profound role played by our subconscious.

Here’s David Brooks’ message in a nutshell.  He suggests that many of our society’s woes stem from the failures of rational strategies to address problems that arise from our complex subconscious needs.  Nationwide, most of our major personal and institutional policies seem to be based in rational thoughts, yet most of our major problems are not simple cause-and-effect situations.

Reason plays little role in many of our most important decisions — how to develop wisdom, how to select a friend, know right from wrong, or learn to “play nice”.  It’s especially true for our complex, innate need to connect with people and form relationships.

David Brooks is a careful reporter and perceptive analyst, but he’s not a scientist.  Nevertheless, he musters a staggering array of modern scientific research, especially in psychology and the neurosciences.  Brooks is careful to tell us that specialists in these fields will quibble with the details of his conclusions, but I believe he lays out the contours of this territory accurately.

He has written “We’re not rational animals, or laboring animals; we’re social animals. We emerge out of relationships and live to bond with each other and connect to larger ideas.”

“The Social Animal“’s implications are numerous — in organizing education, practicing politics, conducting business, and managing relationships.  Especially in managing relationships.

Where have we heard something like this before?  Why, from all those people urging us to be “Social” with Social Media.  Be authentic, they say.  Honest, sincere, and helpful.  Be a reliable friend and colleague, and correspond faithfully.

I expect social media users will adopt these attitudes more and more, and as they do I expect their posts and responses will become more “feeling”, “caring”, and “personal”.  In this way, posts will appeal more strongly to those sentiments in the people who receive them.  Online correspondence will stick more, coming “from a person, to a person”, and social media posts will thereby become more effective.

Do you use social media — especially Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube?  Do you blog? Do you focus on interacting with people and building relationships?

 

 

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