Advocating New Kind of Social Literacy

Online, December 11, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Humans are social animals. Previously, our social literacy had to do with face-to-face interactions, not Facebook interactions. How have we adapted? How successful are our previous strategies at navigating these new social spaces? Early net adopter and writer Howard Reingold spoke with Tawkers.com founder Blake Ian about success strategies for surviving and thriving in the virtual spaces we inhabit. Tawkers is a relatively new social platform for the sharing of, and commenting upon, public instant messaging conversations. Online discussions are steered by two Hosts, and the forum can share and discuss in a separate panel. Edifying and enlightening comments can be upvoted for the Hosts' attention.

Reingold, in fact, is credited with inventing the term "virtual community." He's been writing about the personal in "personal computer" since 1985. He's participated in some of the earliest online communities, including the influential WELL. At the elite Stanford University, Reingold is welcomed as a visiting professor, teaching a class in Virtual Communities and Social Media. If there were only one tech guru to choose for a conversation on your new social network about social networking, it would be Howard Reingold. He has a list of published books that would make most author green with envy, and has even founded a tech con, Brainstorm, now in its 15th year.

On May 21st, 2013, Blake Ian, the founder of Tawkers, hosted Reingold in a Tawk entitled "Net Smart: How to Thrive Online." Reingold was treated with the appropriate deference due his expertise and he did not disappoint in sharing with the host and the audience nuggets of wisdom. The pleasantries didn't last long, with Reingold jumping in to the meat of the conversation very quickly. His insight into the subject matter and his years of writing made him approachable, funny, and insightful. In response to why people should learn to use social media, he responded, "It hardly makes sense to complain your automobile doesn't take you anywhere interesting or useful if you haven't learned to read a map."

It is, at once, a refreshing and sobering view to have someone advocate for social media as both a responsibility and a tool for greater understanding, and that is what Reingold did. He doesn't paint social media as cure-alls, nor as the source of evil, but as tools for use. He continued to say that basic social media literacy is the responsibility of netizens, focusing on the tenets of attention, "crap detection," collaboration, participation, and network know-how. In an era of hot-button issues, Reingold's cool expertise was a much-needed change of pace.

To read the May 21, 2013 Tawk with Howard Reingold and Blake Ian or to learn more about Tawkers.com, visit the website at: www.tawkers.com