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December 20, 2008
Twitter: the Psychotherapeutic Tool
If you followed the launch of my newest (and perhaps thus far most exciting) company, Neurogizers, you'll know I'm keenly interested in methods of improving the human mind.
But there are more ways to improve the human mind than by upgrading its raw processing power.
Not to discount the importance of doing so. The Neurogizers do that (in some crazy effective ways), and there are hidden benefits to using them regularly (improved mood, increased self-esteem, increased creativity, improved focus, and so on ...), but this is not the "be all end all" of the human mind.
No matter how much you improve the processing power of your "human computer" there is still the matter of the "data set" with which it views the world.
Put another way, the data on your "human hard drive" determines to a large extent how you interpret "new data."
Or simpler still: depending on your experience of life up to this point, how you react to new experiences can differ radically.
For example, a man having been rejected by a woman may perceive that moment as humorous or devastating.
A woman may perceive the apparent sexual advances of a man as threatening or flattering.
A speaker may perceive laughter as his audience laughing with him - or at him.
Why?
A Tweet from Scott Reinhart in a conversation with Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian summed it up elegantly:
"Correct. Same stimuli + different perceptual instruments + unique neural map = different data"
By "neural map" Scott is referring to our best understanding of neuroscience to date: neural networking.
The human mind can be viewed as a complex network of data and connections between those data. (Warning: colossal understatement follows.) In relation to your well-being, the data matters and the connections matter.
So, what does this have to do with Twitter?
As we're plugged in to the Twit-stream of data not only are we reacting to it differently based on our past experience - it is also shaping our future experience as well. (To what degree? I'll let the discussion ensue. Meanwhile ...)
Because of this, I tend to un-follow people who are constantly complaining, attacking other people, or giving me input that is otherwise unsupportive of a healthy neural map.
What is a "healthy neural map?"
Again - another matter for intense discussion, but I think most might agree with the following.
"Healthy Neural Map" = one that makes me experience the greatest possible joy while simultaneously protecting my survival and the survival of others.
Yes, that's perhaps a hammer where a laser is required, but for our purposes it works just fine.
So, what if there were a way to influence the Twit-stream in such a way that it supports a healthy neural map?
Thinking along those lines I tried an experiment yesterday that had some pretty amazing results.
It may seem absurd to you at first, but hear me out. It's worth it.
It started with the following tweet:
"If everyone Twittered "I love you" to everyone else would we bring about world peace. OK, everyone start with me :p"
Immediately I started to get a whole stream of "I love you!"s flying back at me in my "@replies."
So what?
Well, the effect it had on my state of mind was profound. It felt amazing.
But then it got even more interesting ...
I morphed the experiment a bit and started asking people to pass on the "I love you"s to 5 people.
What ensued was 45 minutes of pure hilarity and joy. As I replied back to people with "I love you too!" and encouraged them to keep it going, I started to feel a bit, well, drunk.
I finally had to stop as it was time to take my team out for our annual Christmas dinner.
I ended it with this tweet:
Takin' staff to dinner. I am entrusting the I Love You RT Train to you. Sacred trust. Keep it going!
If you search through yesterday's tweets you can see that this started an impressive chain reaction.
Last I checked there is still fighting today in Gaza, Sri Lanka, and Iraq so it didn't quite cause world peace, but interesting nonetheless, no?
The last thing I noticed was perhaps the most interesting.
As I tweet'd back and forth with "I love you" and "I love you too" (in all it's comic absurdity) I noticed that the tweets I saw coming across the twit-stream seemed to have a radically changed character.
Gone were the gripes and grievances we often see fly across our screens on Twitter.
What was happening?
Was my Reticular Activation System simply tuning them out?
Or, maybe, just maybe ... all the "I love you"s flying around my neck of the Twitterverse made people more conscious of what they were Tweeting.
Who knows.
What I do know is that my personal experience of it, and I hope the experience of those who participated, was largely positive. It gave me a great experience - dare I say even a cheap "high."
And having extra "I love you"s floating around in your neural-map can't hurt your self-image. (Indeed, our belief that we are loved may be one of the essential foundations of mental health.)
Will it cause world-peace? Well, who knows the far-reaching implications of our actions?
it certainly couldn't hurt it if enough of us do it.
Why not see what happens?
How to Reproduce the Twitter "I Love You" Experiment.
1. If you're not already on Twitter, sign up (it takes just a few seconds).
2. "Tweet" this to 5 people:
I love you! Pass it on to 5 people. If you get an "I love you" write back "I love you, too!"
Make sure you send it directly and individually to 5 people. You do that by starting out your Tweet with an @ sign followed by the username of the person. For example:
@markjoyner I love you! Pass it on to 5 people. If you get an "I love you" write back "I love you, too!"
3. See what happens.
Have fun with it. Some people will Tweet back silly stuff. Just go with it. If the reply you get is ambiguous, choose to interpret it positively.
4. Report back your experience in the "comments" section below.
Posted by Mark Joyner at 5:53 PM | Comments (22) | Permalink
Mark, this is great. Our new paradigm for the 21st century is The Power of Love instead of The Love of Power. You have begun a massive love expansion on Twitter - I absolutely LOVE it!