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Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact
by Annette SimmonsMost people have been conditioned to believe that business communication must be clear, rational, and objective, with no place for emotion or subjective thinking. Yet the most powerful, persuasive communication has a human element. . . often delivered simply and personally through the telling of stories. This book shows readers how to use personal stories to get their ideas across and create meaningful connections between themselves and their audience. Moving beyond the usual speech-openers or ice-breakers, the book gives readers a process for finding, developing, and using their own stories, including how to: * gain people's trust * use six different kinds of stories * shift from everyday thinking into story thinking * help shape group decisions and actions. Filled with enlightening anecdotes, this practical guide gives readers the tools they need to persuade, inspire, and influence others through the power of story. CEO Refresher The Best Books of 2007
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact
by Annette SimmonsStories have tremendous power. They can persuade, promote empathy, and provoke action. Better than any other communication tool, stories explain who you are, what you want...and why it matters. In presentations, department meetings, over lunch-any place you make a case for new customers, more business, or your next big idea-you'll have greater impact if you have a compelling story to relate. Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins will teach you to narrate personal experiences as well as borrowed stories in a way that demonstrates authenticity, builds emotional connections, inspires perseverance, and stimulates the imagination. Fully updated and more practical than ever, the second edition reveals how to use storytelling to: Capture attention * Motivate listeners * Gain trust * Strengthen your argument * Sway decisions * Demonstrate authenticity and encourage transparency * Spark innovation * Manage uncertainty * And more Complete with examples, a proven storytelling process and techniques, innovative applications, and a new appendix on teaching storytelling, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins hands you the tools you need to get your message across-and connect successfully with any audience.
The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left
by Todd Gitlin"The whole world is watching!" chanted the demonstrators in the Chicago streets in 1968, as the TV cameras beamed images of police cracking heads into homes everywhere. In this classic book, originally published in 1980, acclaimed media critic Todd Gitlin first scrutinizes major news coverage in the early days of the antiwar movement. Drawing on his own experiences (he was president of the Students for a Democratic Society in 1963-64) and on interviews with key activists and news reporters, he shows in detail how the media first ignore new political developments, then select and emphasize aspects of the story that treat movements as oddities. He then demonstrates how the media glare made leaders into celebrities and estranged them from their movement base; how it inflated the importance of revolutionary rhetoric, destabilizing the movement, then promoted "moderate" alternatives--all the while spreading the antiwar message. Finally, Gitlin draws together a theory of news coverage as a form of anti-democratic social management--which he sees at work also in media treatment of the anti-nuclear and other later movements. <P><P>Updated for 2003 with a new preface, The Whole World Is Watching is a subtle and sensitive book, true to the passions and ironic reversals of its subject, and filled with provocative insights that apply to the media's relationship with all activist movements.
Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success--and Won't Let You Fail
by Keith FerrazziDisregard the myth of the lone professional “superman” and the rest of our culture’s go-it alone mentality. The real path to success in your work and in your life is through creating an inner circle of “lifeline relationships” – deep, close relationships with a few key trusted individuals who will offer the encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support every one of us needs to reach our full potential. Whether your dream is to lead a company, be a top producer in your field, overcome the self-destructive habits that hold you back, lose weight or make a difference in the larger world, Who’s Got Your Back will give you the roadmap you’ve been looking for to achieve the success you deserve.Keith Ferrazzi, the internationally renowned thought leader, consultant, and bestselling author of Never Eat Alone, shows us that becoming a winner in any field of endeavor requires a trusted team of advisors who can offer guidance and help to hold us accountable to achieving our goals. It is the reason PH.D candidates have advisor teams, top executives have boards, world class athletes have fitness coaches, and presidents have cabinets. In this step-by-step guide to the powerful principles behind personal growth and change, you’ll learn how to:· Master the mindsets that will help you to build deeper, more trusting “lifeline relationships” · Overcome the career-crippling habits that hold you back, once and for all · Get further, faster by setting goals in a dramatically more powerful way· Use “sparring” as a productive tool to make the decisions that will fuel personal success· Replace the yes men in your life with those who get it and care – and will hold you accountable to achieving your goals· Lower your guard and let others help!None of us can do it alone. We need the perspective and advice of a trusted team. And in Who’s Got Your Back, Keith Ferrazzi shows us how to put our own “dream team” together.
Who's Laughing Now?: Feminist Tactics in Social Media
by Jenny Sunden Susanna PaasonenExploring feminist social media tactics that use humor and laughter as a form of resistance to misogyny, rewiring feelings of shame into shamelessness.Online sexism, hate, and harassment aim to silence women through shaming and fear. In Who's Laughing Now? Jenny Sundén and Susanna Paasonen examine a somewhat counterintuitive form of resistance: humor. Sundén and Paasonen argue that feminist social media tactics that use humor, laughter, and a sense of the absurd to answer name-calling, offensive language, and unsolicited dick pics can reroute and rewire shame into a self-assured shamelessness.
Who's That With Charlie?
by Charles S. Mechem Neil Armstrongfrom Introduction by Neil Armstrong:Charlie Mechem's interests and his background prepared him well for an unusually broad career in law, business, professional sports, and acting as a consultant and advisor to a number of individuals and businesses. For instance, as CEO of the Taft Broadcasting Company, Charlie often held the annual meeting of shareholders at an auditorium inside Taft's Kings Island theme park near Cincinnati, Ohio. Shareholders, along with their invitation to the meeting that arrived in the mail, would receive a ticket to enter the theme park with its many thrill rides and other entertaining attractions. A few people bought one share of the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, just to get the free ticket to the park. Taft was an entertainment company, and the meeting of shareholders was an opportunity to showcase their talents. Charlie's dynamic speeches, together with music, video, and the help of Yogi Bear and Fred Flintstone, dazzled the shareholder audience.Charlie is a speaker with a touch of genius. At one unusual meeting of senior management and the board of directors where, due to a combination of corporate setbacks and uncertainty, the mood was somber and the faces long. Charlie gave the opening address, spoke candidly and humorously about the challenges faced, turned up the tempo, congratulated all on their great work and the bright future ahead. By the time he finished, the entire gathering was standing and cheering like their team had just won the World Series.In this book you will find much of the magical character of Charlie Mechem through his recollections of a wide variety of individuals and many of the "life lessons" which he learned from them. These people and these experiences became a significant part of Charlie's life and have become etched indelibly into his memory.
Whose Global Village?: Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World
by Ramesh SrinivasanThis critical reassessment of digital proliferation calls for a new approach to technology that includes marginalized, non-western communities. In the digital age, technology has shrunk the physical world into a &“global village,&” where we all seem to be connected as an online community. Yet while we think of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as open and accessible to all, they are in fact commercial entities developed primarily by and for the Western world. Considering how new technologies increasingly shape labor, economics, and politics, these tools often reinforce the inequalities of globalization, rarely reflecting the perspectives of those at the bottom of the digital divide. This book asks us to re-consider &‘whose global village&’ we are shaping with the digital technology revolution. Sharing stories of collaboration with Native Americans in California and New Mexico, revolutionaries in Egypt, communities in rural India, and others across the world, Ramesh Srinivasan urges us to re-imagine what the Internet, mobile phones, or social media platforms may look like when considered from the perspective of diverse cultures. Collaboration with maginalized communities could pave the way for a people-first approach toward designing and working with new technology worldwide.
Whose News?
by Kalpana Sharma Ammu JosephWhose News?: The Media and Women's Issues (1994) quickly became an international classic which was widely used. The decade that has passed since its publication has witnessed dramatic developments in the media environment across the world. As a consequence, the coverage of gender issues in the media today has to be viewed and evaluated against the background of globalization in general and media globalization in particular. This is just what this new and updated edition of the pioneering book does. In particular, it addresses the set of questions that has arisen in recent years concerning women's access to the media and to information as users, their participation in media and communication structures, and their portrayal and perspectives in media content. This new edition retains its unique gender analysis of media content, and situates, views and evaluates the coverage of gender issues in the media within the context of recent trends in both the economy and the media industry. Employing a novel and nuanced methodology, it offers a distinctive view of the history of both the media and the women's movement in India as the 20th century gave way to the 21st. It also examines current media coverage of women's issues such as dowry-related violence, rape, sex selection, Muslim women's legal rights, and the practice of sati.
Why Are We Yelling?: The Art of Productive Disagreement
by Buster BensonHave you ever walked away from an argument and suddenly thought of all the brilliant things you wish you'd said? Do you avoid certain family members and colleagues because of bitter, festering tension that you can't figure out how to address?Now, finally, there's a solution: a new framework that frees you from the trap of unproductive conflict and pointless arguing forever.If the threat of raised voices, emotional outbursts, and public discord makes you want to hide under the conference room table, you're not alone. Conflict, or the fear of it, can be exhausting. But as this powerful book argues, conflict doesn't have to be unpleasant. In fact, properly channeled, conflict can be the most valuable tool we have at our disposal for deepening relationships, solving problems, and coming up with new ideas.As the mastermind behind some of the highest-performing teams at Amazon, Twitter, and Slack, Buster Benson spent decades facilitating hard conversations in stressful environments. In this book, Buster reveals the psychological underpinnings of awkward, unproductive conflict and the critical habits anyone can learn to avoid it. Armed with a deeper understanding of how arguments, you'll be able to: • Remain confident when you're put on the spot • Diffuse tense moments with a few strategic questions • Facilitate creative solutions even when your team has radically different perspectivesWhy Are We Yelling will shatter your assumptions about what makes arguments productive. You'll find yourself having fewer repetitive, predictable fights once you're empowered to identify your biases, listen with an open mind, and communicate well.
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots
by Brian Fugere Chelsea Hardaway Jon WarshawskyOle! If you think you smell something at work, there's probably good reason--"bull" has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, antiseptic, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn't have to be that way. The team that brought you the Clio Award-winning Bullfighter software is back with an entertaining, bare-knuckled guide to talking straight--for those who want to climb the corporate ladder, but refuse to check their personality at the door. Why Business People Speak Like Idiots exposes four traps that transform us from funny, honest and engaging weekend people into boring business stiffs: The Obscurity Trap: "After extensive analysis of the economic factors facing our industry, we have concluded that a restructuring is essential to maintaining competitive position. A task force has been assembled..." These are the empty calories of business communication. And, unfortunately, they're the rule. The Obscurity Trap catches idiots desperate to sound smart or prove their purpose, and lures them with message-killers like jargon, long-windedness, acronyms, and evasiveness. The Anonymity Trap: Businesses love clones--easy to hire, easy to manage, easy to train, easy to replace--and almost everyone is all too happy to oblige. We outsource our voice through templates, speechwriters and email, and cave in to conventions that aren't really even rules. The Hard-Sell Trap: Legions of business people fall prey to the Hard-Sell Trap. We overpromise. We accentuate the positive and pretend the negative doesn't exist. This may work for those pushing Ginsu knives and miracle Abdominizers, but it's dead wrong for persuading business people to listen. The Tedium Trap: Everyone you work with thinks about sex, tells stories, gets caught up in life's amazing details, and judges everyone else by the way they look and act. We live to be entertained. We all learned that in Psychology 101, except for the business idiots who must have skipped that semester. They tattoo their long executive-sounding titles on their foreheads, dump pre-packaged numbers on their audience, and virtually guarantee that we want nothing to do with them. This is your wake-up call. Personality, humanity and candor are being sucked out of the workplace. Let the wonks send their empty messages. Yours are going to connect. Fast Company magazine named Why Business People Speak Like Idiots one of the ideas and trends that will change how we work and live in 2005. So grab your cape and sharpen your sword. It's time to fight the bull!
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide
by Jon Warshawsky Brian Fugere Chelsea HardawayOle! If you think you smell something at work, there's probably good reason--"bull" has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, antiseptic, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn't have to be that way. The team that brought you the Clio Award-winning Bullfighter software is back with an entertaining, bare-knuckled guide to talking straight--for those who want to climb the corporate ladder, but refuse to check their personality at the door. Why Business People Speak Like Idiots exposes four traps that transform us from funny, honest and engaging weekend people into boring business stiffs: The Obscurity Trap: "After extensive analysis of the economic factors facing our industry, we have concluded that a restructuring is essential to maintaining competitive position. A task force has been assembled..." These are the empty calories of business communication. And, unfortunately, they're the rule. The Obscurity Trap catches idiots desperate to sound smart or prove their purpose, and lures them with message-killers like jargon, long-windedness, acronyms, and evasiveness. The Anonymity Trap: Businesses love clones--easy to hire, easy to manage, easy to train, easy to replace--and almost everyone is all too happy to oblige. We outsource our voice through templates, speechwriters and email, and cave in to conventions that aren't really even rules. The Hard-Sell Trap: Legions of business people fall prey to the Hard-Sell Trap. We overpromise. We accentuate the positive and pretend the negative doesn't exist. This may work for those pushing Ginsu knives and miracle Abdominizers, but it's dead wrong for persuading business people to listen. The Tedium Trap: Everyone you work with thinks about sex, tells stories, gets caught up in life's amazing details, and judges everyone else by the way they look and act. We live to be entertained. We all learned that in Psychology 101, except for the business idiots who must have skipped that semester. They tattoo their long executive-sounding titles on their foreheads, dump pre-packaged numbers on their audience, and virtually guarantee that we want nothing to do with them. This is your wake-up call. Personality, humanity and candor are being sucked out of the workplace. Let the wonks send their empty messages. Yours are going to connect. Fast Company magazine named Why Business People Speak Like Idiots one of the ideas and trends that will change how we work and live in 2005. So grab your cape and sharpen your sword. It's time to fight the bull!
Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press
by Michael SchudsonJournalism does not create democracy and democracy does not invent journalism, but what is the relationship between them? This question is at the heart of this book by world renowned sociologist and media scholar Michael Schudson. Focusing on the U.S. media but seeing them in a comparative context, Schudson brings his understanding of news as at once a story-telling and fact-centered practice to bear on a variety of controversies about what public knowledge today is and what it should be. Should experts have a role in governing democracies? Is news melodramatic or is it ironic – or is it both at different times? In the title essay, Schudson even suggests that journalism serves the interests of free expression and democracy best when it least lives up to the demands of media critics for deep thought and analysis; passion for the sensational event may be news at its democratically most powerful. Lively, provocative, unconventional, and deeply informed by a rich understanding of journalism’s history, this work collects the best of Schudson’s recent writings, including several pieces published here for the first time.
Why Don't We Listen Better?: Communicating and Connecting in Relationships
by James PetersenGood communication uses the same skills in a professional office, on a date, in a corporate board room, or at a kitchen table, says Dr. Jim Petersen, author of Why Don't We Listen Better? He wrote this book to help you gain these skills and improve your relationships. According to this veteran counselor, most of us think we listen well, but don't. Not really hearing what others are trying to say can be costly. When people don't feel heard they tend to get irritated, confused, and pull away from each other. You will chuckle in recognition of his flat-brain theory. It shows why we have trouble hearing each other and what we can do about it. Jim's insights and collection of listening techniques will give you creative ways to handle both daily interactions and difficult relationshipsUsing the portable Talker-Listener Card will help you and others hear each other, relax, think clearer, and build empathy and cooperation. This unique approach to listening could change your life.
The Why Files
by Terry Devitt David J. TenenbaumScience magazine meets The Onion, Mental Floss, and Mad magazine in this ingenious guide to the science behind the newsFor more than a decade , the intrepid folks at whyfiles.org-the #1 science destination on the web-have been exploring the science behind newsworthy events. Now condensed into a book written with the site's characteristic wit, The Why Files features scores of articles organized into sections that mirror any city's daily newspaper: World News, Metro, Business Life, Sports, Arts & Leisure, Travel, Style, Opinion Page, and more. Who knew that science can explain why extremists say "God Told Us to Kill," how poker can make you sick, why great racehorses have big butts, and if electrocution is the best way to zap a bug? For those who love accurate science served up with humor in a one-of-a-kind newscast, this decidedly non-geeky guide is a must.
Why Hackers Win: Power and Disruption in the Network Society
by Patrick Burkart Tom McCourtWhen people think of hackers, they usually think of a lone wolf acting with the intent to garner personal data for identity theft and fraud. But what about the corporations and government entities that use hacking as a strategy for managing risk? Why Hackers Win asks the pivotal question of how and why the instrumental uses of invasive software by corporations and government agencies contribute to social change. Through a critical communication and media studies lens, the book focuses on the struggles of breaking and defending the “trusted systems” underlying our everyday use of technology. It compares the United States and the European Union, exploring how cybersecurity and hacking accelerate each other in digital capitalism, and how the competitive advantage that hackers can provide corporations and governments may actually afford new venues for commodity development and exchange. Presenting prominent case studies of communication law and policy, corporate hacks, and key players in the global cybersecurity market, the book proposes a political economic model of new markets for software vulnerabilities and exploits, and clearly illustrates the social functions of hacking.
Why I'm a Journalist: Personal Stories from Those Who Cover the News
by Aaron ChimbelWhy be a journalist? It can be a difficult job with long hours, hard work and an uncertain future. Journalists face relentless criticism and an industry in transition. Aaron Chimbel has put together a collection of essays from working journalists who answer the question — why be a journalist? — with their personal stories of coming up, toiling in the field and writing important, career-defining stories. These journalists come from different platforms, beats and locations, offering varying accounts of the travails and rewards of being a working journalist across changing landscapes and timelines. The essays in Why I’m a Journalist offer encouragement and wisdom about the path to being a reporter, a broadcaster, an editor or a media professional. This is a collection for students interested in the field, early upstarts engaged with building their careers and seasoned pros looking to learn from their colleagues.
Why Johnny Can't Write: How to Improve Writing Skills
by Arthur Whimbey Myra J. LindenThe authors of this book, both experienced teachers, examine the controversy surrounding two popular methods for teaching writing -- the "process" approach and its offspring, Writing Across the Curriculum. Both have recently been called into question for their ineffectiveness. An alternative lesser-known procedure called "sentence combining," which has been proven successful in numerous studies over the past fifteen years, finally is gaining the attention it deserves. Using the sentence combining approach, the authors present a rationale for re-thinking and re-tooling the English classroom and consequently making the entire educational system work more effectively. This book is useful for teachers at any level, especially those involved in writing instruction. It is also worthwhile reading for those wishing to improve their writing skills. Doing the sample exercises will strengthen writing skills and provide a solid foundation for a lifelong program of language growth.
Why Leadership Training Fails--and What to Do About It
by Michael Beer Magnus Finnstrom Derek Schrader"The Problem Companies are dumping billions of dollars into training and development programs—but their investments aren’t paying off. The Reason Six common managerial and organizational barriers prevent people from applying what they’ve learned, no matter how smart and motivated they are. The Solution To create a favorable context for learning and growth, senior executives must first attend to organizational design—both at the very top and unit by unit."
Why Men Lie & Women Cry: How to get what you want from life by asking
by Allan Pease Barbara PeaseThe authors of the international bestsellers WHY MEN DON'T LISTEN AND WOMEN CAN'T READ MAPS and THE DEFINTIVE BOOK OF BODY LANGUAGE teach strategies for happier, more fulfilled relationships.Allan and Barbara Pease are the world's foremost experts in personal relationships. Their books, seminars and TV programmes have made them household names from Australia to the UK and from the USA to Japan. In their follow-up to the multi-million selling WHY MEN DON'T LISTEN AND WOMEN CAN'T READ MAPS, Allan and Barbara use the same combination of startling observation of people's actions towards one another, humour and practical advice to teach the reader more about what men and women want from relationships, and how to get it.
Why People Don't Believe You…: Building Credibility from the Inside Out
by Rob JollesThe veteran success coach offers practical strategies for projecting credibility at work and in life.For some, projecting confidence and credibility is second nature. For others, it seems like a foreign language they’ll never learn—until now. In Why People Don't Believe You Rob Jolles leverages decades of experience to equip readers with empowering and practical tools for building the kind of credibility that leads to business and social success.Jolles argues that credibility is as much about attitude as it is about aptitude. So-called “soft skills” like pitch, pace, and tone of voice, are a crucial part of how people perceive us. As he puts it, “it’s not the words, it’s the tune” that really makes us memorable and credible.Why People Don’t Believe You will help readers cultivate a robust mental framework and a set of “performance skills” to tackle self-doubt, feel more confident, and project credibility. He offers specific tactics and practices for successful communication, advice on handling setbacks and moments of insecurity, and reveals how to sustain your newfound credibility for the long haul.
Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life
by Katherine Ormerod**FREE SAMPLER**'This book is a call to arms from the eye of the storm'- Emma Gannon, author of The Multi Hyphen MethodDo you ever obsess about your body? Do you lie awake at night, fretting about the state of your career? Does everyone else's life seem better than yours? Does it feel as if you'll never be good enough? Get a first glimpse of Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life with this exclusive free sampler, and learn how to tackle head on the pressure cooker of comparison and unreachable levels of perfection that social media has created in our modern world.In this book, Katherine Ormerod meets the experts involved in curating, building and combating the most addictive digital force humankind has ever created. From global influencers - who collectively have over 10 million followers - to clinical psychologists, plastic surgeons and professors, Katherine uncovers how our relationship with social media has rewired our behavioural patterns, destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention spans.Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life is a call to arms that will provide you with the knowledge, tactics and weaponry you need to find a more healthy way to consume social media and reclaim your happiness.
Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life
by Katherine OrmerodDo you ever obsess about your body? Do you lie awake at night, fretting about the state of your career?Does everyone else's life seem better than yours? Does it feel as if you'll never be good enough? Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life tackles head on the pressure cooker of comparison and unreachable levels of perfection that social media has created in our modern world.In this book, Katherine Ormerod meets the experts involved in curating, building and combating the most addictive digital force humankind has ever created. From global influencers - who collectively have over 10 million followers - to clinical psychologists, plastic surgeons and professors, Katherine uncovers how our relationship with social media has rewired our behavioural patterns, destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention spans.Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life is a rallying cry that will provide you with the knowledge, tactics and weaponry you need to find a more healthy way to consume social media and reclaim your happiness.Reviews for Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life:'This book is a call to arms from the eye of the storm'- Emma Gannon, author of The Multi-Hyphen Method'Enter Ormerod's vital manual, which will help you navigate social media and turn it not into a weapon, but a useful tool' - Pandora Sykes
Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life
by Katherine Ormerod'This book is a call to arms from the eye of the storm'- Emma Gannon, author of The Multi-Hyphen Method'Enter Ormerod's vital manual, which will help you navigate social media and turn it not into a weapon, but a useful tool' - Pandora SykesDo you ever obsess about your body? Do you lie awake at night, fretting about the state of your career? Does everyone else's life seem better than yours? Does it feel as if you'll never be good enough? Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life tackles head on the pressure cooker of comparison and unreachable levels of perfection that social media has created in our modern world.In this book, Katherine Ormerod meets the experts involved in curating, building and combating the most addictive digital force humankind has ever created. From global influencers - who collectively have over 10 million followers - to clinical psychologists, plastic surgeons and professors, Katherine uncovers how our relationship with social media has rewired our behavioural patterns, destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention spans.Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life is a rallying cry that will provide you with the knowledge, tactics and weaponry you need to find a more healthy way to consume social media and reclaim your happiness.
Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life
by Katherine Ormerod'This book is a call to arms from the eye of the storm'- Emma Gannon, author of The Multi-Hyphen Method'Enter Ormerod's vital manual, which will help you navigate social media and turn it not into a weapon, but a useful tool' - Pandora SykesDo you ever obsess about your body? Do you lie awake at night, fretting about the state of your career? Does everyone else's life seem better than yours? Does it feel as if you'll never be good enough? Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life tackles head on the pressure cooker of comparison and unreachable levels of perfection that social media has created in our modern world.In this book, Katherine Ormerod meets the experts involved in curating, building and combating the most addictive digital force humankind has ever created. From global influencers - who collectively have over 10 million followers - to clinical psychologists, plastic surgeons and professors, Katherine uncovers how our relationship with social media has rewired our behavioural patterns, destroyed our confidence and shattered our attention spans.Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life is a rallying cry that will provide you with the knowledge, tactics and weaponry you need to find a more healthy way to consume social media and reclaim your happiness.(p) 2018 Octopus Publishing Group
Why Society is a Complex Matter
by Philip BallSociety is complicated. But this book argues that this does not place it beyond the reach of a science that can help to explain and perhaps even to predict social behaviour. As a system made up of many interacting agents - people, groups, institutions and governments, as well as physical and technological structures such as roads and computer networks - society can be regarded as a complex system. In recent years, scientists have made great progress in understanding how such complex systems operate, ranging from animal populations to earthquakes and weather. These systems show behaviours that cannot be predicted or intuited by focusing on the individual components, but which emerge spontaneously as a consequence of their interactions: they are said to be 'self-organized'. Attempts to direct or manage such emergent properties generally reveal that 'top-down' approaches, which try to dictate a particular outcome, are ineffectual, and that what is needed instead is a 'bottom-up' approach that aims to guide self-organization towards desirable states. This book shows how some of these ideas from the science of complexity can be applied to the study and management of social phenomena, including traffic flow, economic markets, opinion formation and the growth and structure of cities. Building on these successes, the book argues that the complex-systems view of the social sciences has now matured sufficiently for it to be possible, desirable and perhaps essential to attempt a grander objective: to integrate these efforts into a unified scheme for studying, understanding and ultimately predicting what happens in the world we have made. Such a scheme would require the mobilization and collaboration of many different research communities, and would allow society and its interactions with the physical environment to be explored through realistic models and large-scale data collection and analysis. It should enable us to find new and effective solutions to major global problems such as conflict, disease, financial instability, environmental despoliation and poverty, while avoiding unintended policy consequences. It could give us the foresight to anticipate and ameliorate crises, and to begin tackling some of the most intractable problems of the twenty-first century.