Last year the post on communication was one of the most popular posts. This year let’s expand on that idea over several posts throughout the year and relate communication to what we all do – blogging our way through life.
“Great conversations always spark in a genuine interest to recognize and know the other person’s story and, therefore, recognizing and understanding and celebrating their humanity.”
– Janet Mock
IT’S EASY TO PLAY ALONG WITH #WQW
This weekly writing challenge runs from Wednesday through Tuesday. The only rule is to use a quote. If you want to participate, create a pingback to link your post. Not sure how to do that? See how to create pingbacks here. Be sure to link to this post, not my page. Or just make a comment and have conversations with each other.
Featured Bloggers for …
Your friendships mean so much. I was planning to take two weeks off, but as you can see, this post starts a new year of topics for WQW.
- LADY LEE MANILA
- NEW2WRITING
- PRIORHOUSE BLOG
- SECOND WIND LEISURE (SUNDAY STILLS)
#WQW # – Topic: Socializing
Definition: 1. the action or practice of participating in social activities or mixing socially with others. 2. the action or process of causing a person to behave in a way that is acceptable to their society. 3. causing someone to behave in a way that is acceptable to their society.
Bing
“Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.”
– Miles Franklin
Possible Guiding Questions
You don’t have to answer these questions, but they might spark your thinking as they did mine.
- What happens if humans don’t socialize?
- How does blogging fit into healthy socializing?
- Is socializing worth your time?
- How much time does it take to socialize?
- What are the benefits of socializing?
- Ways to socialize
- Where and how to teach socialization
My Brainstorm of Ways to Socialize
Socializing falls into three basic categories: Face-to-Face, Verbal, and Written Communication.
- Face-to-Face Communication: uses all senses, can be either spontaneous or planned
- Travel together – introduces proximity, usually planned, incorporates all five senses
- Walk together – uses all senses, is active and increases healthy lifestyle, solves problems, randomly imparts information
- Verbal Communication: Phone or Face-to-Face electronic device and software- uses two senses, is usually planned now that we have caller ID and Zoom.
- Written Communication: Letters, email, texts – one sided communication, using one sense only, informational, confirmational, and often legal, as in signing documents
- Any or All Three Forms of Communication – electronic devices or face-to-face and written forms of nearly instant communication
- Events – social celebrations
- Meetings – used primarily to get things done. May be face to face, email, or by electronic device
- Hobbies – seeks or provides expertise may be done alone or together, but eventually is usually shared
- Reading – done alone, shared conversations in book chats both electronically and face to face. Stimulates the brain, increases experiences to include vicarious ones, expands the imagination, has the power to mobilize society
- Writing (books) – has the power to mobilize society and now is much more interactive than books used to be.
- Learning together – school, classes
- Counseling
- Recess and breaks for kids and adults
- Social media
- Blogging/Using Google Docs. – one sided to start, usually done alone, but may be collaborated nearly instantaneously, anticipates and writes to an audience which responds within a short time frame.
- Platforms for different types of information sharing: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Constant Comment, YouTube, Tic Tok, Vimeo, Snapchat, Quora, SlideShare, Survey Monkey, Messenger, Spotify, Mail Chimp, and Yelp to name a few. Each app has its primary usage whether for newsletters, publishing videos, photos, podcasts, or slides, jobs, recipes, other products, music, services, or just to chat.
My WQW Choices for This Week: Parties, Meetings, Events, and Schools
Sunday Stills: Schools Teach Socializing Skills to Future Citizens of Our World
“Social support tends to alleviate the effects of stress.”
– J.B. Cohen
I ended my long career in education as an event planner, staff developer, and cognitive coach. I have spent the first ten years of my retirement learning a different set of skills – blogging, writing, and photography. Some of my most popular posts of all times, getting thousands of views are those in which I shared my professional knowledge. This year I hope to add value to my posts by including a snippet knowledge I’ve gained over the years that might be useful to my readers.
Reducing stress is especially important to learn in education. It can be taught easily while teaching almost any other skill. Assigning projects and problems for children to solve and requiring them to work in groups and teaching them how to do that, will help them face their future with less stress. If one of the students doesn’t know the answer, or doesn’t have a skill needed, another student can help without calling the entire classes’ attention to the student. Anyone who is over 40 has probably had that uncomfortable and stressful experience in school at one time or another.
The teaching strategies that are useful here are: cooperative, project-based, or hands-on learning (assigning tasks) to help the children learn to work together and to help them assess their own work. Using wait time after asking a question. “Talk to your neighbor” – before the answer is revealed.
It is difficult to apply these social techniques in distance learning, but not impossible. To allow children chat time during a zoom meeting, gives somewhat the same benefit and is easier to monitor than in a face-to-face classroom. There are some platforms that allow students to chat even during face-to- face classroom sessions as well.
“It’s all about being a part of something in the community, socializing with people who share interests and coming together to help improve the world we live in.”
– Zach Braff
Children will rise to the occasion when they have a reason for being problem solvers.
Parties and Meetings
“Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy
“Socializing is more positive than being alone, that’s why meetings are so popular. People don’t like being alone. That would be, however, an important skill to learn…”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
Parties and meetings are two popular ways to socialize. Parties are almost always face to face, except blogging parties, which, like Story Chat, after being set up, take place in the comment section. Face to face parties usually include food and drinks to ease people into conversations. The four bloggers, Debbie – Deb’s World, Donna -Retirement Reflections, Jo – And Anyways, Sue – Living Well After Fifty have effectively combined blogging, Zooming and cooking together to make almost a face-to-face party.
Meetings, unlike most parties can be face to face, by email, phone, Zoom or other digital networking program, walking with a friend or colleague, traveling together, or even while working on projects or hobbies together. Meetings are a time during which humans try to get something done together. Decisions and assignments are made, information is shared.
Social media is itself as temporary as any social gathering, nightclub or party. It’s the people that matter, not the venue. So, when the trend leaders of one social niche or another decide the place everyone is socializing has lost its luster or, more important, its exclusivity, they move on to the next one, taking their followers with them.
Douglas Rushkoff
Speakeasy bars, popular during the roaring 1920s faded from view when the depression hit in the late 1930s. Life was not so easy. They resurfaced again, but not with the vigor that they once had.
Social media will probably exist until the internet is replaced with a more advanced medium for communication. Just like snail mail still has a place in our lives today as it did in 1775 when Ben Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. It is supplemented by other companies offering similar services, but the need to get written communication safely from one person or business to another still exists and will probably continue.
Breaking the Social Ice – Lesson #1 for Introverts
Just ask, “How’s your weather been?”
Other Challenges that Inspired WQW #2
CELL PIC SUNDAY
LENS ARTIST PHOTO CHALLENGE # 181 Double Dipping
SUNDAY STILLS
WEEKEND SKIES
UPDATES ON ALWAYS WRITE
- If you host or participate regularly in a challenge and would like an interview on Always Write contact me by email at marshaalwayswrite@tchistorygal.net. Coming Soon: An interview with the Four Hostesses of “What’s in Your Bookcase.” Clicking on the link will connect you to links to all four hostesses.
Now it’s your turn.
Tell us …. Thanks so much for stopping by and having fun with quotes.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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