TEDx Stating the obvious?

Isaac Newton told us that when an apple fell from a tree it invariably headed towards the ground. Noam Chomsky told us we only make sense of the words of another person because we share a knowledge of the basic grammatical structure of language. Such things might seem obvious – especially when presented in a necessarily brief manner to an audience that does not share a common disciplinary background.

I am a social scientist and this means that, in common with others in my discipline, I seek to understand the social world that we all share. We do this through theoretically informed empirical research. So yes - for some people parts or all of my presentation at the recent TEDx might be dismissed as 'trivial', 'uninteresting' or 'boring'. Such critics have every right to hold and broadcast their opinions. However, in so doing they are closing their minds to the possibility of understanding or as Max Weber (another social scientist – but rather more venerable and long dead) put it ‘verstehen’ - by which (broadly) he meant to indicate that human interaction and society is so complex that it may be best understood through detailed description and interpretation. Even if this is 'just to' state the obvious.

It might be maintained that we ‘just get on with’ our interactions across SNSs and so forth. My talk was not of a ‘how to’ kind - as clearly for the audience at these events - Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and so forth are a part of everyday life. Like other social scientists (for example, Erving Goffman and more recently Anthony Giddens to name two) my concern is to ‘get under’ the everyday, the often mundane and taken-for-granted.

Does this matter in our web 2.0 world? Yes - because as social life embraces or (according to some) moves ‘online’ (an old fashioned label to some, including myself) this brings with it all the good and bad aspects of human behaviour. Indeed this shift may enhance or exaggerate and accelerate some forms of behaviour - we have all read reports of ‘cyber’ bullying, relationships damage through SNSs ‘affairs’ and so forth. More pragmatically, an understanding of how and why people move across social media will help in the design of better and sustainable resources. However, the study of such things is still in its infancy and conventional academic work struggles to keep up with the fast pace of change in social media and accompanying research.Thus, the media that you are immersed in and take-for-granted is strange, risky, fast, ephemeral and trivial to most of my academic and commercial colleagues.

My first TEDx proved to be an interesting experience - I’d like to thank my critics for their considered thoughts – I don’t (yet) have a complete answer (but then I’m not as well established, prominent or well-rewarded as the ‘great men’ mentioned above or the other participants at TEDx) - but your responses will feed into my research and the work on my book, ‘Encounters With. Social life in the network society’, in which I am exploring the issues raised in my talk as well as many others in appropriate depth.

For other hot issues on the day and social media noise about TEDxman you might also want to check out the only other female speaker; Sarah Hartley - @foodiesarah

As well as the other attendees and participants,
Louise Bolotin - @louisebolotin

Ian Aspin - @IanAspin

Kim - @Global5ocialite

Ian Forrester - @cubicgarden

And of course the photos - where one shows me uncannily smiley :-D

TEDx trepidation

In the spirit of 'ideas worth spreading', I have been asked to present at TEDxManchester (with thanks to Ian Forrester @BBC Backstage).

x, because this represents an independently organised event. Albeit with a BBC edge.

This will be my first TED. This will also be the first time I have ever been asked to contribute without a good sense of who the other speakers are, what direction the day will take, or the connection to audience – in my mind the most important part of any conference, unconference or otherwise. Let alone the size of the event itself. This is self-organisation on a small-to-many-scale. And I am as yet unsure as to my role, or the expectations and development of sustained interest with the others whom I hope to encounter. My only regret is that I will have to rush back to York before the close of day for more presentations and various interviews from a North East based.

As technology is my thing it seems only natural that these form the main thrust of my talk. As the pace of everyday life accelerates with various social technologies, my key question is whether we have a better handle of ourselves and/or of others? Social platforms in particular are a central part of what Castells tied together as 'networked lives'. This is a central issue beyond the rise of a technological modernity, which has thrust us into social sensibility that is as rapid, in terms of updates and change, as it can be tumultuous.


To make sense of this type of social existence I suggest these are the signs of the times where the immediacy – the combination of at-once-connection to others and the ubiquitous nature of social media – emerge as core features, which are supposedly under, but never ever completely, our control.

My aim is to draw attention to the coming and arrival of social information in our lives. Thus, the anticipation of reciprocated connections inexorably change how we (should) think about social media, networks, sociability and behavioural practices. In short, such change has already and shall continue to revolutionise our social and cultural rules, rituals and values. But are we ready for that?...

And is TEDx ready for a 'social scientist'... social media analyst or otherwise.

Whatever happens on the day I'm excited to be meeting - such is the advantage of being a Speaker - Herb Kim a figure-head in technology circles and who has more than one 'idea worth spreading'.