I have been using ThinkUp since it was released to its early supporters back in January and I really like it. Unlike some tools which try to make your online activity into a popularity contest, ThinkUp provides insights that are fun and useful. As they say on their home page, “ThinkUp makes you feel good about the time you spend online.”
I’ll give you an example of one way that ThinkUp’s insights have already started to change my behavior. One of the insights I see from time-to-time looks like this:
I think my reaction the first time I saw this was “ouch!” But I gave it a lot of thought. I considered that the message here was that I should do a better job of sharing all kinds of things I find interesting on the Internet, not just stuff that relates to me. Slowly, I’ve started changing my behavior. The result, so far, has been that while I still see the “But enough about me” insights, they tend to look more like the one above. Note that phrase that I highlighted. Even though I doubt this will ever be down to zero–after all, I use social media to keep in touch with friends and colleagues, as well as spread the word about my posts–I think I’m doing a better job at making my tweets less self-centered1.
And I have ThinkUp to thank for this.
It seems to me, this is and example of the very type of change that ThinkUp was attempting to bring about with their insights: allowing users to take useful information (and hints!) from the insights and use them to improve the quality of their online social presence.
- Yes, I recognize that the tweet that goes out about this post will contain the word “my” in it, but I think my intention is clear. ↩
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I look at that ThinkUp insight differently. I try to be mindful of how I talk to and about other people, and couching my statements in the intervention-esque “I” statements makes sure that instead of saying, “This sucks and you suck,” I say, “This is how I feel about this/This is how you made me feel.”
I’d like even richer analysis to tell me if I’m doing a better job of that!
Thanks for your perspective!
Jemal, this is an excellent point, and it is something I try to do as well. (“Here is how I approach this problem…”, etc.) So I do take the message with a grain of salt, but I like overall concept of the message.