Comments on: Twitter and the news agenda

By: Donato

Donato — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:42:50 +0000

And this is the same Ivy bean of 2008 who was oldest person on Facebook!

She must love the Press coverage?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1045158/Meet-Ivy-Bean–worlds-oldest-Facebooker-aged-102.html

By: Jon Hickman

Jon Hickman — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:32:29 +0000

Interesting take on the story here: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/05/18/the-real-story-behind-the-104-year-old-who-joined-twitter/ (via http://twitter.com/bostinbloke)

By: Caroline Beavon (carolinekerrang)

Caroline Beavon (carolinekerrang) — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:51:37 +0000

I have to agree with Jon Bounds – this does possibly look staged. Having browsed Ivys posts on Twitter, something doesn’t seem right here (is it the phraseology or the casual style of communication — I’m not sure).

In fact, is it TOO suspicious to believe that poor old Ivy has nothing to do with her account at all, whilst some Geek Squadder (or maybe even someone at the residential home) sits in their office and imagines how an old lady spends her time? I almost hope someone else IS taking care of it, because the account must be attracting some unwanted attention.

This will certainly boost the profile of social networking sites to a new demographic – but I echo Jon Hickmans concerns that this IS being used as a promotional tool by a 3rd party to promote their business.

I guess it’s inevitable that companies will jump on this bandwagon – the press obviously love social networking stories (I know this first hand) because they are so very “now”. I guess/hope this will calm down over time.

By: Jon Bounds

Jon Bounds — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:28:54 +0000

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/16/did-the-uk-press-con-a-104-year-old-woman-into-joining-twitter-for-digg-bait/

Would love this to be a real example of digital engagement, but it does look staged.

Just how much a little digital help along with ongoing involvement can brighten lives of older people is seen in @Granumentally’s story — as told by her grandson: http://ourmaninside.com/2009/02/08/my-gran-is-on-twitter/

By: Jon Hickman

Jon Hickman — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:26:52 +0000

@felicity so to pick up on Michael’s thread, is there a pastoral element or does Digital Mentoring stop with skills training?

By: Felicity Lambert

Felicity Lambert — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:17:37 +0000

We think it’s great that Ivy is twittering! Well done her and the Geek Squad for the training.
If Twitter is helping Ivy keep up to date with what interests her, whether that’s following the lives of her favourite celebrities or keeping in touch with friends and family, then it’s clearly the right technology for her.
As far as Digital Mentors is concerned, it’s going to be all about putting the individual and community first and matching the technology to their needs. Hopefully there’ll be lots more Ivys in future!

By: Nick Booth

Nick Booth — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:46:12 +0000

The starting point for solving Michael’s pastoral care problem is helping people understand why social media is useful to them.

If you “give” someone a tool which helps them, they will quickly understand it’s value and how it fits into their life. They will also have an incentive learn to use it and maintain it, or get someone else to keep it sharp for them.

If you give them tools for the wrong trade or one they don’t recognise, you are effectively handing them a problem, not a solution.

So social media should be relevant and useful.

By: Jon Hickman

Jon Hickman — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:52:28 +0000

Thanks for the comment Michael. As ever, you have put my point more eloquently than I could. I’m also unsure how things like Digital Mentors fit into this discussion, but I know some of the Media Trust guys are in Birmingham soon so it would be good to get together with them to chat about it then.

Hopefully in the meantime they, and Nick Booth, might pop by and share some thoughts.

By: Michael Grimes

Michael Grimes — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:49:41 +0000

Wow, where to start? Very good post Jon. These are exactly the same concerns that I find myself expressing in regard to the way we tend engage new people with social media. Definitely ‘social media surgeries’ and the like are a good thing, and definitely they should be run by savvy, enthusiastic people. But there seems to be a big chunk missing from the journey into social media, which I tend to refer to as pastoral care. It may well be that this aspect isn’t the duty of social media consultants and surgeries, and is not where their expertise would be best put; so how do we extend their work? I don’t know how this fits with the Media Trust’s Digital Mentors programme, or with the work of UK Online Centres, so maybe someone else has identified it as an issue; but I don’t often hear it.
(As you know I’ve wittered a bit about this kind of stuff before: http://citizensheep.com/blog/tag/digital-divide/)

I’ve had some thoughts in the past on how we can do this (and I know that others, such as Nick Booth, have too); maybe it’s worth us fleshing something out?

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Twitted by toodamnninja — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:07:17 +0000

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