How Social Media Is Changing the Way I Think

Visual Thinking and Social Media

In a recent post, I had a kind of personal breakthrough about my reasons for blogging. I realized that I’m blogging mainly to learn, and that I’m sharing what I learn here with my readers. I’m also tweeting to learn, as opposed to my use of Facebook and LinkedIn, which for me are more purely about keeping in touch with friends and colleagues as well as professional networking. This week, a serendipitous guest post at Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger site, aptly called Blogging to Learn,  helped reinforce a lot of my earlier conclusions about my own blogging objectives.  

Interactivity and Social Learning

Related to learning, I want to add some thoughts this week on the changes I’ve noticed in the way I process information, since I started blogging and using social media. In general, the world of blogs and Twitter feels to me like one gigantic virtual classroom, and even if I am not always directly engaging with others through social media, I importantly feel like I’m interacting, as fellow bloggers and “Tweeps” bounce their ideas and links off of each other, in the Blog-o-sphere and Twitterverse. The interactive quality of social media, even this vicarious interactivity in the absence of direct engagement, has been a powerful learning incentive and vehicle for me. My experience informally confirms one recent study which concludes that “knowledge retention is only possible when accompanied with personal interaction or activity, but this becomes even more important as people get older. Adults must be socially stimulated to learn.” 

Searching for the Big Picture and Enhanced Problem-Solving

Social media is also influencing my reading habits. I’ve bought numerous professional books in the last six months, but instead of reading all the way through, as was more my earlier habit, I’m starting to skip about several print texts simultaneously, almost in a hyper-linked fashion. I feel like my breadth is greater than it used to be, even if my “depth” is a bit diminished. (These days, a topic has to be particularly relevant to my personal or professional objectives for me to want to drill down. I just don’t have the information bandwidth to invest, unless there is a compelling reason.)

I’m really becoming an information grazer, snacking on information in one place, and then following up with a piece of related information somewhere else, always in search of the whole picture. It’s almost like I’m constructing a puzzle out of these separate links and posts, but there’s always just one more piece to find. It’s like the puzzle I’m trying to solve just keeps getting bigger.

Shorter Attention Span

I grow a bit impatient now when there is too much background information. I want the point to be obvious (and bulleted!), and if it isn’t, I’ll move on to some place else, where the information is more easily digested. The sheer volume of information coming at me, all at once, is a bit overwhelming sometimes, and I feel daunted, trying to reduce so many complex ideas to the confines of a blog post. I am beginning to purposely think and write in thought fragments.

Parallel Processing and Translating Pictures into Words

It’s  also harder than it used to be for me to break down so many ideas running in tandem, into their component parts. The more ideas I’m processing at once, the harder it is to categorize and explain in words what I’m thinking, because my thoughts aren’t sequential anymore. It’s also harder for me to develop lengthier arguments or conclusions (you remember—the ol’ thesis statement from the high school essay?), because this new style of thinking (and writing) rarely allows me to develop my ideas far enough to make those kinds of assertions. Online, there is rarely closure, as there’s always another link or blog post to discover somewhere. All thought is fluid now. Writing is becoming the act of translating these mental pictures into words, whereas before, I was always thinking in words—there was no extra translation step involved.

Creativity and Innovation

The main improvement to my thinking is I am continually making connections now between seemingly disparate ideas and disciplines. I process information more flexibly now, and I’m putting my metaphorical puzzle together in ways that have possibly never been considered before, by myself certainly, and possibly by anyone else…I’m more creative, and this change in my thinking is bound to help me innovate, both in my personal life, and at work.

Less Analytical and Organizational Focus 

On the flip side, I am becoming more of a skimmer, than a deep reader, and I feel like my powers of analysis and organizational ability aren’t as sharp, when I am in this online “big picture” thinking mode. With so many ideas jangling about my head, always in flux, it’s harder for me to isolate a single thought and nail it down in writing.

Experiencing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Visual Thinking

In summary, in just the six months that I have immersed myself online,  I share more and more of the strengths and weaknesses of visual thinkers. That’s significant, considering I’m a former English major, English instructor, and professional writer—one whose natural preference is to verbally process most information. Though you can readily surmise from this blog that I am in no danger of losing my preference as a verbal thinker, social media is helping me to hone my visual thinking and more seamlessly switch back and forth between these complementary modes of processing information.

Photo credit, jean-louis zimmermann

Related Links

• Online Instructional Resources Learners and Learning: Millennial Learners
• Learning and Thinking Styles
• A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, But
• The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers