Twitter Conversations

I was in my first twitter sustained conversation this week. The hashtag keeping it altogether was #nzaot10. I think it was a international conference of OTs (Occupational Therapists.)

I was following it out of curiosity when the conversation turned to some mental health related topics, that I'm quite interested in.

So I contributed my ideas from my position as an mental health promotion expert.

It was an interesting professional conversation because I don't often get to dialogue to academic inclined OTs.

Some of my Tweets were retweeted by key participants and that encouraged me to participate more. Further, a few questions were directed at me.

In the next few days, my Twitter account 'lewismal' picked up a handful of new Twitter followers who are OTs in different parts of the world.

I'm not sure what that will mean for them or me. I do sense the value from this Twitter interaction of having conversations with people who think differently about topics I work on from my peers.

I look forward to what comes my was from them by way of ideas, news or questions that disrupt my professional assumptions.

I wonder what would happen in my home town of Toowoomba ( to our already strong community networks and to our fairly weak local media if local tweeters started using a #Twba hashtag.

Does anyone have any predictions?
Does anyone know of a town/small city that has adopted a hashtag based on its name? What happens to community spirit?

I should Twitter out those questions.

Using Online Networks to promote social connectedness

In my work in health promotion, I am concerned about social isolation.

Other buzz words include social capital, social inclusion, social connectedness, and loneliness.

Every now and again one sees something that really underscores how much we can underestimate something we know is critically important.

Have a look at this new reserch. This table and this meta analysis on health impact of social isolation really was a surprise to me in the scale of the positive impacts.

A Scientific America magazine article on the research is also available.

In short, good interpersonal social networks are more crucial to physical health than exercising or a low BMI . Same goes for much of the other health messages out there. The table shows that social relationships are more influencial than smoking more than 15 cigerettes per day or drug treatment for hypertension.

To quote, "These findings indicate that the influence of social relationships on the risk of death are comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality such as smoking and alcohol consumption and exceed the influence of other risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity. "

The conclusion to me- in your work, being teaching or health care, or any other- Take account of social connection-it matters. Build social capital.


As for what I hope to learn out this F0201o, I wonder everyday, "How can we use tools like Facebook, Twitter and Ning to promote healthy social connections?"

I have found useful background on loneliness at the UKs Mental Health Foundation.

I'm worried about internet addiction, links between use of the internet and depression.

I'm excited by newer social networking tools such a Facebook.

Ideas and leads welcome?

I’d value a good question if you don’t have part of the answer.

And look after your social connections while doing this course.