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Archive for the ‘Psychology & Social Sciences’ Category

With the selection of Howard Stern as a new panel member on America’s Got Talent, it made me realize that behind all his controversy, he’s doing something right. As a radio personality, talk show host, and prominent media figure, Howard Stern knows a few things about the world of communication. It makes sense considering he graduated magna cum laude with a communications degree from Boston University. Look past the many double d’s and hysterical parents circling Mr. Stern and you will find communication lessons we should all take into consideration. Here are the five things Howard Stern can teach you about communicating. 1. Shock & Awe If there’s one thing Howard Stern knows best it’s shock and awe. While you may not appreciate his choice of shocking methods, you must admit he knows how to grab your attention and hold it. If you subscribe to a more innocent form of shock and awe, you may be using milder techniques like dramatic stories or interesting facts placed neatly at the beginning of your speeches. There’s no doubt shock is an effective communication method for capturing attention, and Howard Stern wrote the book on it. 2. Know Who You Are If there is one thing that doesn’t sound natural in communication, it’s acting like someone you’re not. In fact, we have words for it — lying and fraud — just to name a few. When you’re not genuine, it’s heard in your voice and in your body language. Howard Stern doesn’t apologize for who he is. He accepts himself and owns it. 3. Stand Out When you think of Howard Stern, it doesn’t take long to create a mental image, does it? Sure much of his success did come from behind a microphone, but there’s no doubt his other media successes would not have been as great without his unique large curly hair and glasses look. You can see him coming from a mile away. Whether you’re on a date or giving a speech, standing out should be your priority as well. Maybe you choose to show up in a bolo tie to a room full of suits? Whatever your method of standing out, make sure your audience can pick you out of a crowd. 4. Give Them Something to Talk About Howard Stern knows the show doesn’t end after his time slot does. A majority of his audience usually finds something so unusual and unique in his program that they discuss it with their friends throughout the rest of the day. Stern realizes he is not just communicating with his listeners, he’s also communicating with everyone they interact with. If you want people to talk about you, you’ll need to give them something to talk about. 5. Make Them Remember You Everyday Stern gives his listeners a show they’ll never forget. Through unique guests and unusual conversations listeners are given a piece of a world that doesn’t exist except through his station. You should strive to do the same thing in your communication. This could be through the use of a wild stage prop or the simple act of buying a rose for your date from the relentless flower girl circling the restaurant. If you can give them something to remember you by, you’ll be a little piece of their history they hold onto for the rest of their life. Howard Stern may be known as a wild and undesirable figure, but don’t discount his skill because of a little controversy. The man does know how to communicate. I mean we’re talking about him after all, aren’t we?

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5 Things Howard Stern Can Teach You About Communicating

Do we spend too much time on our cell phones, and do these interactions get in the way of real human companionship? Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who has studied the effect of digital technology on human interactions, believes that cell phones and computers offer an unhealthy constant connection without any of the real responsibilities or inherent messiness of real human interactions. “Our devices are so psychologically powerful that they don’t only change what we do,” Turkle says, “they change who we are.” In a speech to the TED conference, Turkle explains that text messages, Facebook status updates and other micro-interactions allow us to exercise unhealthy control over our day-to-day relationships. Individuals avoid person-to-person interactions in favor of text-based digital interactions because they can control these digital experiences more fully. Turkle calls this the Goldilocks effect–people want their interactions to be not too close, not too far away, but just right. Technology allows us to delete, alter and change our discussions with other people to build the exact image of ourselves that we want. We sacrifice conversation, because conversation can lead to unexpected circumstances and discomfort. Turkle notes that this has a negative effect on our ability to convey empathy and other emotions. “We’re developing robots that are specifically designed to be companions to the elderly, to our children, to us,” said Turkle. “Have we so lost confidence that we can be there for each other?” Turkle believes that the best way to emphasize real human connections over digital relationships is not to completely abstain from text messages or other technologies–after all, she opens her speech by reading a text message she had received from her daughter moments before she went on stage–but rather to create tech-free zones at work, home and school. Parents especially should insist on family meals without any sort of digital interference. Ultimately, communications technologies offer great rewards along with some notable risks. By spending too much time connected to our online personae, we can certainly disconnect from one another. It’s important to remember that the purpose of technology is to help our real-world lives and not vice-versa.

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How Digital Interactions Impact Our Interpersonal Communication [Video]

Ever wonder how television drama actually compares to real life? Now you can find out. TNT, whose slogan reads, “Your Daily Dose of Drama,” gives us a taste of what it takes to make highly entertaining television through their new ad/viral video. The video, “A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square,” features a red button in the middle of a public space somewhere in Belgium. Above it hangs a giant sign which reads “Push to Add Drama.” The button — obviously — gets pushed. This action is followed by an ambulance racing to the scene, a fight, a woman in lingerie riding a motorcycle, and more. While the video is hilarious to say the least, it’s also insightful. The video, which has gone on to become the second most-shared video of all time — falling only behind Volkswagen’s 2011 Super Bowl ad, “The Force” — also highlights the dichotomy between real life and television. Something we sometimes seem to forget. Seeing how dramatic the media we digest truly is suggests we have to ask ourselves what kind of effect it is having on us whenever we press the “on” button of our remote. Is it drama like this which causes hypochondria, increased violence and other symptoms of a cultural demise we often blame on media? Maybe so. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Viral TNT Ad Is Hilarious and Insightful [Video]

The Hunger Games Facebook It’s hard to overstate the massive success of  the film adaptation of ‘The Hunger Games’. So far the first film in the series has grossed over $250 in eleven days,  higher than any ‘Twilight’ adaptation and every ‘Harry Potter’ adaptation, save for the final installment in the series. This isn’t just a hit family film like ‘The Lorax’, this is one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Films opening up on Memorial Day weekend or Independence Day are expected to open this way, but how does this happen in late-winter/early Spring? Children are in school, adults are working and Hollywood is usually at it’s sleepiest this time of year.  Some would attribute this to marketing techniques, particularly ones used through social media outlets. Many business degrees today emphasize the use of social media marketing, but often times don’t understand that social media is a dynamic tool. Wielding various outlets requires creativity and timeliness. For example, despite the wealth of billboards in cities around the world and the usual onslaught of television ads, ‘ The Hunger Games’ presence was felt on-line in ways far more advanced than simple banner ads on popular websites. The marketing team for ‘The Hunger Games’ created 13 Facebook pages representing the different districts that play a role in the story. Facebook user could align themselves with the district of their choice and become ‘citizens’ of a specific district. A Twitter account was created for The Capitol, a reference to the central city in the story, and has since been followed by over 66,000 people. Meanwhile, ‘The Hunger Games’ was mentioned about 1 million times on Twitter last month, according to real-time search site Topsy.com. In a move that suggests a sophisticated awareness of the series large female fan-base, the films marketers even created a Tumblr account called Capitol Couture to discuss the wild fashions worn by characters in the series. This this sort of interactivity has proven popular in the past. ‘Harry Potter’ fans take quizzes on Facebook to find out which ‘wizarding house’ they belong in and then post the results for friends to see. ‘Twilight’ of course has it’s ‘Team Edward’ or ‘Team Jacob’ campaign. The popularity of these social media efforts seem to be paying off. Though there is still a question of whether the success of ‘Hunger Games social marketing is due to the popularity of the series or if it is actually increasing awareness and eventually the number of tickets sold. While there is no concrete data yet to prove the usefulness of the social media, consider the case of ‘Hunger Games’, with it’s myriad uses of social media, vs. ‘John Carter’, which focused most of it’s marketing on the traditional marketing and on-line banner ads that most people seem to simply find annoying. The $250 million and counting racked up by ‘The Hunger Games’ on a budget of $80 million speaks a lot louder than the $66 million ‘John Carter’ has earned on a budget of at least $250 million. With those sort of numbers, it’s safe to say you can expect to see a major increase in social media usage by Hollywood in the near future.

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Hunger Games Marketing Turns to Social Media

A new online tool draws attention to how young people are exposed to radio ads for wine, beer and hard liquor. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth developed the tool at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health by tracking and analyzing the consistency of alcohol-related ads in 75 radio markets in 2009. Although many young people rely on television programs and websites for entertainment, radio is still a popular medium. The tool’s creators hope to bring attention to the way that alcohol advertisers seem to target teens in many markets despite the commitment that many alcohol trade groups made in 2003 to target adult-oriented radio shows. In releasing the tool, the Center’s director David Jernigan, PhD noted that many advertisers need to use more proportional radio marketing to prevent 12 to 20 year-old listeners from being inundated with pro-alcohol ads. Jernigan notes that young listeners are more easily influenced than older listeners and are more at risk for developing problems like dependency after using alcohol. The Center notes that about 4,700 young people die each year from alcohol-related causes, including car accidents and overdoses. “Alcohol is the leading substance abuse problem among youth in the U.S.,” said Jernigan, “and we know alcohol advertising and marketing have a significant impact on youth decisions to drink.” The tool asks users to choose an applicable radio market. Visitors can then view exposure estimates for all types of alcohol-related advertising in the market or choose from a list of alcohol types to see specific information on wine, beer and liquor ads. The website tracks out-of-compliance ads, which are defined as ads on shows with a regular audience made up of 30% or more underage listeners, as well as proportional standards and youth overexposure statistics. The tool then displays all of these statistics in easy-to-read graphs with the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth’s term definitions clearly explained at the bottom of each page. Jernigan hopes that the flexible tool will provide key information for parents and lawmakers across the country. The Center also hopes to drive legislation and renewed trade group agreements that limit youth overexposure to alcohol-related advertising. While the website generates a fairly raw set of data, it will give local health departments across the country a simple way to view important data about youth advertising exposure while drawing attention to out-of-compliance ads in certain markets.

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New Tool Shows Youth Overexposure To Alcohol-Related Advertising

Before you start writing your speech, you should ask yourself these questions. It’s a problem we see over and over as presentation skills trainers – the first thing someone does when they’re told they need to make a presentation is turn on their laptop, fire up PowerPoint and begin to type. That’s wrong in a lot of ways! Firstly, the very idea of using a computer of any kind before you know what you want to say in your presentation is a mistake. No matter how good your software is and no matter how comfortable you are a using it, once you start to use a computer you have to think like the computer. Nine times out of ten, that stops you being creative and asking yourself what the best way to make your presentation is. Chances are, it’s not like you’re doing it. Secondly, I used the word PowerPoint. Don’t get me wrong, you can deliver great presentations using PowerPoint – just like you can do good things with a gun – but it’s easier to do bad things with a gun than good… and it’s easier to create bad presentations with PowerPoint than good ones. Trust me on this – I’ve sat through more bad presentations than I care to remember. If you’re intending to become a serious presenter, look into the alternatives (such as Keynote, or even Prezi). Thirdly, typing without thinking is like writing a letter without knowing who it’s going to be sent to! Why on earth would you do that? Answer is, you wouldn’t, so why risk blowing your credibility at work with such a daft idea! So what to do? Well before you even turn on your computer, there are three and a half questions to ask yourself. Once you know the answers, you can think about answering them in your presentation. Question #1: what does my audience already know? Assume they know more than they do and you’ll lose them in the first paragraph. Nothing turns people of faster than jargon they don’t understand or implicit assumptions they don’t share! Alternatively, if you assume they know too little you’re going to bore them and not give them anything of value. Either way, you look like a bit of a burk! Question #2: by the end of my presentation, what does my audience need to know? The less you tell them the more they’ll remember, so don’t go over-board here. Most experts make the mistake of assuming the audience is as interested in the details as they are. They aren’t. Generally speaking the only people who care about the details of what you’re talking about are other people who already do what you’re talking about – and where’s the margin in preaching to the choir?! Question #3: what’s the difference between the two answers above? This is what your presentation should contain. This and only this. Everything else is a distraction. Obvious, isn’t it? Yeah? Well in that case, why are so many presentations awfully bad?! Oh, and once you’re got the answer to question three, before you turn your computer on, think about the last half question – what’s the best way to tell them the things you need to tell them to answer question three? It might not involve turning on the computer at all!

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Pre-Speech Writing Tips: 3 1/2 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Turning Your Computer On