Sometimes you have to dunk.
Why do I write dozens of tweets during the Grammy’s?
Steven Pressfield, one of my favorite authors, answers that question in his brilliant book, The War of Art
Social Media
Skrillex wants you to put down your smartphone.
Skrillex is one of the biggest names in electronic music right now. He plays sold out shows across the planet, recently won a bunch of Grammys and has a Facebook fan page that adds 300,000 new fans each week.
His sound is based on the magic he’s able to make with a Macbook and a billion digital files. Knowing his penchant for all things electronic, he’s the last person you’d expect to throw a flag of caution about how much we all use our cellphones. And yet …
This is what Skrillex recently said to a group of people at one his shows as reported by Rolling Stone magazine:
5 reasons I didn’t retweet you.
A while ago, Michael Hyatt wrote a great blog post titled, “Why I won’t retweet you.” (If you’re not reading his blog, you need to. He is a blogging beast.)
He raised some great points that really got me thinking about how I choose what I’m going to retweet. (I’m @jonacuff on Twitter.) I knew that someday I’d do my own version of that post, and today is that day.
Here are the 5 reasons I didn’t retweet you:
How to remember your family is more important than social media.
Last fall I had dinner with my friend Bob Goff.
During the dinner, I told him I had a bit of a dilemma. It’s not a big problem, but it has the potential to become a big problem.
What is it?
Quit trying to prove yourself.
Recently a guy on Facebook expressed his extreme disdain for my book Quitter
Here is an excerpt of what he wrote:
#3 in 2011: 3 letters that will radically improve every blog and tweet you ever write.
Last week, we had an influential musician over to our house for dinner. We’d never met before, but had bumped into each other on Twitter a few times and have a lot of mutual friends.
After he went home and my wife and I were getting ready to go to bed, I wrote a tweet that said, “Great day with @__________, an artist who inspires me to be a better me.”
Then I asked myself a three letter word that has the power to radically improve every blog and tweet you ever write:
8 words from my 5 year old that changed social media forever.
A few months ago, my 5-year-old daughter McRae put on a big backpack. The backpack was almost as tall as she is, and it was an adorable moment there in the kitchen.
I said, “McRae, stay for there for a second. I want to take a picture.” Without missing a beat, she said, “No.” I asked her why, and in the way that only kids can, she threw a grenade into the room:
The biggest lie about travel we all believe.
I’m traveling right now more than I ever have before. As of this moment, I’ve got a bunch of speaking gigs booked for 2012 and a couple for 2013. There’s a chance that number will increase. And as I’ve mentioned often, my wife and I are trying to be really deliberate about staying connected as the shape of our lives shifts a little bit.
But in doing that, I ran across a dangerous lie that wounds countless marriages.
Do you need to be an expert at social media to change the world?
Mother Theresa
Martin Luther King Jr.
Winston Churchill
Abraham Lincoln
Mahatma Gandi
Nelson Mandela
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Socrates
Rosa Parks
Picasso
George Washington
Jackie Robinson
The Beatles
What’s that list?
Do you have to be as tech savvy as your kids are with the internet?
Want to hear something a little terrifying?
For centuries, parents have given their kids the awkward “birds and the bees” sex conversation. But we are the first generation of parents in the history of mankind who must have a “digital footprint” conversation with our kids.
We are the first generation that has to sit our kids down and say, “Let’s talk about Facebook and Twitter and Youtube.”