The debate goes on, fueled recently by Malcolm Gladwell writing in The New Yorker, attacking the prevalent idea that online social networks represent the future of campaigning and protest, and perhaps – in totalitarian states – of revolution.

Gladwell debunks this argument in typical style, as Tim Adams of The Observer explained:

Gladwell examined the most effective mass protest of modern times – the American civil rights movement. Using an account of the courageous coffee bar sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, he argued that such activism was based on the strength of intimate friendships and shared experience, and directed by hierarchical power, could never have arisen from the “weak ties” and “horizontal” associations that characterise the campaigning of online “friends” and “followers”.

Perhaps this is so, but there are certainly arguments to be made for the fact that totalitarian regimes, for all their control, are much more liable to come unstuck when they are subject to intense scrutiny by loose networks of people that are impossible to supervise.

That aside, there is an aspect to social media, and Twitter in particular, that I for one had overlooked until recently. I set up a new Twitter account @ipadbooksnews to promote a blog that, as it clearly states, reviews books available on iPad. I had not much hope for this new Twitter venture, having previously set up another Twitter account that quickly attracted a few thousand people in whom I have no particular interest and vice versa. It rolls on even today, gathering more and more superfluous and indifferent ‘followers’.

This new account though brought an unexpected benefit. Where once Twitter was like a dumb terminal, taking little interest in the type of network I could become part of, I see now that it makes suggestions about those with similar interests I might want to follow. Twitter sensed my interest in books and presented me with options to follow such worthies as GuardianBooks, GrantaMag, the britishlibrary, BookTV and so on.

Which brings me to the title of this post

GuardianBooks tweeted about their poem of the week, Emily Dickinson’s What Mystery Pervades a Well! and I have to say it affected me profoundly. I’ve long been an admirer of the nineteenth century poet who manages to express herself with wit and brevity, while at the same time reminding us of how little we can know of the natural world outside our own ring-fenced experience.

What mystery pervades a well!
That water lives so far –
A neighbor from another world
Residing in a jar

Whose limit none has ever seen,
But just his lid of glass –
Like looking every time you please
In an abyss’s face!

As the poet Carol Rumens says: ‘Dickinson’s brevity convinces you that poems were never meant to be long or ostensibly complicated.’

And while I hesitate to draw parellels between the 140 character behemoth that is Twitter and Emily dickinson’s spare style, there is a connection, at least for me. Twitter is indeed a well that offers up mystery after mystery, whether it’s a call to action to join a crusade or a reflection on the nature of reality.

Here’s a link to the whole poem What Mystery Pervades a  Well by Emily Dickinson.

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Photo by Maysie

The One Tool You Need to Lead a Balanced Life is a great guest post by Haider Al-Mosawi on Zen Habits.

The idea is that you create a Personal Growth Map from the Seven Life Areas that are our lives, then take the following actions:

1. List all the activities you can do to advance each life area
2. Consider activities that stretch across several life areas
3. Select the activities you want to carry out for each life area

When these actions are combined they provide you with a more balanced approach to life and help you gain control while satisfying your needs across multiple life areas.

For example, one activity might be jogging. The loneliness of the long-distance runner is a recognised fact, but finding a jogging partner or group, and extending that to other pastimes (like blogging about it) would create a life / balance system across a number of life areas — recreational, social, creative.

Read the post at Zen Habits or go straight to Personal Growth Map then use your journal to start creating balance.

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Tokoni believes everyone has a story to tell.

If you can’t get your message across in 140 characters on Twitter, join the community on Tokoni and tell your story to an audience that appreciates what you have to say.

It’s an easy tool to use. Set up your profile and start sharing your stories.  You can even start to record your autobiography or memoir one story at a time. When finished adding a story, choose a category and add tags (keywords) so your story can be easily found through search.

Create a Hub

A hub is a place for Tokoni members (Tokos) to collaborate, share and discuss stories around a topic. Hubs can be created from any number of places, like your profile page, a story page, and from the hubs link on the navigation bar on the top of every page.  When you create a hub you can name it, give it a description, add images or even video, and categories.

Let me tell you a story…

There was once a family of immigrants who decided to flee their country after a world-wide conflict left many people without homes and little hope for the future. The family first arrived in the Far North where they had no experience of the weather, the culture and the way of life in general.

They found it hard to relate to a new land and hoped to return home one day, but gradually, without even realising it was happening, they adapted to the new way of life.

When finally they had worked hard enough to save the money for the journey home, much to their surprise they realised that they didn’t want to go. The land they had fled to was their new home and that’s where they decided to stay.

Stories change the way we relate to each other

If I tell you this is my family story and show you photos from my family album you will probably now have a very different impression of me from when you first began this article.

Perhaps your background is similar. Somewhere in your history are people who faced the same challenges. If this is so, then we share parts of the story, and in this way we have established common ground on which to relate to each other. Even if your life experience bears no resemblance to mine, you have shared some of my experiences through my story.

If you don’t have a personal blog, telling your story on Tokoni is a great way to get published and share your story with others.

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Mind maps are a great way to set personal goals, make decisions, solve problems and plan for the future. Mind maps are also a great journaling tool and can be used to plan, communicate and develop creative ideas.

But first of all, what’s a mind map?

A mind map is like a map of a city. Let’s say you’re thinking about your next holiday. The central point of your mind city is ‘holiday’ but thoughts about where you could go, how much you might spend, who would go with you perhaps, branch out like freeways from that central starting point. As you go along one route you notice little sub-routes branching off at odd intersections. Following these new paths leads again to interesting new branch points.

If you could watch your thought processes you would see the map expanding, creating new patterns and adding new sub-branches of its own accord, quickly, surely and with great complexity.

Mind mapping is basically the process of capturing these thoughts quickly and easily by drawing a diagram that looks, in essence, very similar to a map of your mind. Or at least how you might think your mind processes would look if you were able to take a snapshot of your thought paths.

Get started now

Here’s what you need to get started:

• a large sheet of paper
• coloured pens and pencils
• imagination

Start at the centre of your page. Find an image or a picture of your central idea. You could draw something, use a photograph, or perhaps a picture from a magazine. If your central idea is HOLIDAY use an image of the place you want to get to or a picture of a plane, boat, car etc.

Draw thick branches radiating out from your centre point. Make sure to use separate colours for each branch. Colour adds energy and helps your creative thinking. Write a key word along each branch, for example, PLACE, MONEY, CLOTHES, EQUIPMENT.

When you have your main branch ideas start adding the sub-branches. These are the thoughts that naturally generate in relation to your theme. For example, if one branch is DESTINATION you could add branches for the different places you would like to visit. Let’s say London, Paris, Berlin. These branches would then break down into third-level branches such as Museum, Tower, Harrods etc.

Print clear key words on all the sub-branches and add small images as you go. Eventually you might fill the whole sheet.

As you continue I can guarantee you will see connections that would never occur to you if you were writing a simple list.

mind map

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