Social networking is continually slammed in the press for be psychologically and socially damaging. I'm not so sure. It's ubiquity is certain to create social change, but I don't think it's all change for the worse. In fact, I believe that if designers, user experience experts, sociologists and psychologists collaborate, we have the potential to design better social relationships than the real-world ones we have now. At the very least, we can create technology that helps people interact instead of separating them.

1. Is all that liking, commenting & tweeting really good for you?
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

2. Who on earth are Equator?
THE big numbers agency.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

3. A Beta Life
Will social media ever be good for us?
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

4. We are guinea pigs.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

5. We are lazy.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

6. DON’T LIKE
CHANGE.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

7. 1.
I’m a profile
not a person.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

8. 2.
What’s the first thing
you do in the morning?
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

9. 3.
Everyone else is
more popular,
happier, has more
holidays than me.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

10. 4.
We’re just
piss-farting around.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

11. One small step for
man’s friends...
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

12. ...one giant leap
for mankind.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

13. 1.
Societal
globalisation
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

14. 2.
The weak shall
inherit the earth
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

15. 3.
We will make
things & friends.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

16. 4.
We won’t
value privacy.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

17. 5.
We will decide to
de-personalise.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

18. 6.
We will see the
bigger picture.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

19. 7.
We’ll be legends
in our own lunchtimes.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

20. Digital society
is out of Beta.
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

21. A bet(t)a life?
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

22. @jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

23. Thank you
Richard Seymour, Founder, Seymour Powell David DiSalvo; Ben Goldacre author Bad Science; Dr Robert Burton, neurologist; Dr Gary
Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian Small, Professor psychiatry and behavioural sciences at UCLA; Maggie Jackson author of
Mark Granovetter, The Strength of Weak Ties Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the coming dark age. Four authors respond to
Ross Dawson, Trends in the Living Networks the social networking controversy, Neuronarrative.
Zeynep Tufecki, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Elana Premack Sandler, LCSW, MPH, Facebook, emotions and identity, Psychology Today
Malcolm Gladwell, A Small Change, The New Yorker Rosemary Joyce, professor of anthropology UC Berkeley, Facebook Users: More friends,
Dr Stephanie Sarkis, Social Media, Psycholtherapy & Cyberbullying, Psychology Today closer friends
Pamela Rutledge, PHD, MBA, Social Media Addiction: Engage Brain Before Believing, Sam Gustin, Social Media sparked, accelerated egypt’s revolutionary fire, Wired
Psychology Today Nadia El-Awady, Tweets of an Egyptian Revolutionary
Sherrie Bourg Carter, Psy.D. E-connections: Do Social Media Help or Hurt Our Beth Kanter, Social media for good and evil, strong ties and weak ties...
Relationships? Psychology Today Michael Wu PHD, Community vs Social Network, Lithium
Jim Taylor PHD, Is Technology Stealing our (self) identities, Psychology Today Katie Scott & Heather Brooke, The revolution will be digitised, Wired
Elizabeth Donovan, Socializing to be thin: Facebook linked to Eating Disorders MobiThinking, Global mobile statisitics 2011
Bridget Pilloud, A difference between Trey Pennington’s story and my story, Intuitive Eli Pariser, Where good ideas come from: the natural history of innovation
Bridge.
Lady Susan Greenfield & David Derbyshire, Social websites harm children’s brains: Chilling And of course:
warning from top neuroscientist, Daily Mail. Google
Wikipedia!
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

24. Thank you
Lauren. Craig. Catriona.
@typewriters @craighepburn @catrionacampbel
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla

25. You’ve been listening to:
A beta life.
I’d love to hear what you think about all this:
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla
james@eqtr.com
@jamesjefferson @equatoragency #smwgla