Social Media: Why and How it has Changed our Lives

Love it or hate it or be oblivious to it, Social Media has transformed the way much of the world is communicating. Ideas and images spread across the worldwide web as quickly as they cross the span of one’s brain. Crowds can be triggered to appear out of nowhere and then disappear again into the background; governments quake in fear of the instantaneity and ubiquity of cell phone cameras and smart texts.  

Facebook and platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, have given the average person the ability, for the first time, to publish his or her own ideas and thoughts in a public forum. No longer is news, opinion, and advertising the sole domain of giant corporations companies. In this way, media has become democratized. Most significantly, Social Media provides an environment where one can easily find his or her “tribe” – other people with shared interests, passions, and desires, whether they be political, cultural, religious, etc. The result of this can be of great benefit, or of great danger, to the global community. 

We will explore the origins of Social Media and explain why it has developed at such a rapid fire pace. And we will examine the power of this new and evolving phenomenon. 

PRODUCER: Betsy Kent

Betsy Kent was an early adopter of the Internet as a marketing medium. She draws from her extensive experience in the media, marketing and advertising industries to help marketing executives leverage the power of digital channels. Training in Cultural Anthropology gives Betsy unique insight into how people behave, communities form and operate, and the cultural subtleties that can mean success or failure in marketing. She is known as someone who demystifies digital trends in simple, straightforward, un-techie terms.

After running a successful digital marketing agency for over 8 years, Betsy now acts as a coach and consultant and teaches entrepreneurs how to use blogging and Social Media as tools to increase their online visiblity, get recognition and improve their sales. She is the founder and president of Be Visible Associates.

http://www.bevisibleassoc.com

THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS – Or how we bring about positive change in the world without struggle.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" … These were, according to Thomas Jefferson, our most “inalienable rights” equally given to all human beings by their Creator, and for which protection governments are created. 

Hence “happiness” became for the first time in human history the bedrock of American democracy guaranteed in the new nation’s Declaration of Independence.  But really, how could Happiness be put on the same order of importance as Life and Liberty?  Somehow, there seem to be far more important issues to “worry” about…

And indeed, our parents, society and most cultures around the world teach their children about hard work, discipline, obedience, respect of laws and traditions, and yes too, sacrifice, as the necessary elements to eventually achieve some level of happiness in our lifetime and most assuredly after death in Heaven. 

Always then the attainment of happiness had a price, an element of self-sacrifice and struggle.  And if happiness was the ultimate goal, success, love, prosperity, justice, fairness were the means.  We needed first right all wrongs, overcome adversity and then… deservedly, happiness will come to us. 

In her talk, Wafa argues we have been misled and we have it all backward.  It is not through struggle and hardship that we achieve positive change and success for us and others, it is first by learning to be happy, truly content and at peace with ourselves and under any and all circumstances, that we can bring about lasting change and success. 

Using the principles of the Law of Attraction – “The essence of that which is like unto itself is drawn” – and the Teachings of Abraham, she will address the nagging issues and stubborn roadblocks that keep us from achieving the life we dream of in the kind of world we want. 

PRODUCER: Wafa Hallam

Born and raised in Morocco, Wafa F. Hallam left home at 18 for France where she lived for 4 years and traveled to over 35 countries selling French books. In 1980, she moved to America to attend college the University of Florida, then New York University where she earned a Master's Degree in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. She lived in NYC for over 25 years and worked for Merrill Lynch as a senior financial advisor for over a decade. 

In December 2003, Wafa left Wall Street after she hit a wall mentally and emotionally. The perfect storm gathered for her in the wake of 9/11, her mother's illness, the invasion of Iraq and a profound personal identity crisis. In 2007, she began writing her first book, a memoir, called The Road from Morocco.

In the early stages of her book writing, Wafa was introduced to Ekhart Tolle’s New Earth, a book that became her bible and transformed her life. It marked the beginning of an unquenchable drive to learn all about spirituality and the expansion of human consciousness. Her self-study of Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah, Sufism, and finally Abraham-Hicks, among others, all served to form the basis of her understanding of human awakening. 

Terrorist or Freedom Fighter? My struggle with fundamentalism

A young woman goes searching. Her mission:  to stop all evil; to do good; to do good for others.  And, maybe, to find a family of comrades who share her intentions, who can show her “the way” to make “all wrongs right”.

Her path quickly lands her in an avalanche of extreme circumstances that pitch “good and evil” in high relief -- events that demand that she choose a path of resistance or retreat. Maybe the group will guide her in effective action. Inclusion requires alignment with a powerful revolutionary rhetoric she hopes will quell her nagging uncertainties and insecurities. Always the question that follows her is "Are you on the side of what is "right" or what is easy?" 

Radical Descent: The Cultivation of an American Revolutionary is my memoir of this journey.  In reading passages from the book, and in sharing some of my more recent immersion in Zen practice over the past two decades, I hope to invite our Salon into discussion of some of the questions that have shaped my adult life. 

What constitutes “right” action in the face of evil and/or perceived threat?

Given that most or all of us humans want to be “members” of some tribe or family, and virtually all want to be loved, how do we steer clear of “social agreements” that advocate rejecting, hating, or in other ways doing harm to others?

If violence begins in the mind, what tools can guide us towards peace?

PRODUCER: Linda Coleman

Linda Coleman is the author of Radical Descent: The Cultivation of an American Revolutionary, published by Pushcart Press, September, 2014 and winner of the Pushcart Editor’s Choice Award. The story details her choice to turn from her privileged past to join a revolutionary guerilla cell in the 1970’s and follows her precipitous journey to a path of committed non-violence.

She has published other fiction and memoir and, as well, has edited three collections of women’s memoir writing from the Suffolk County Corrections where she led weekly memoir-writing workshops for ten years and worked with over 1500 women. She continues her work in jail as a mentor for young men. Coleman has also been a nurse and Nurse Practitioner for over thirty years and is a practicing Zen Monk, ordained in 2003, a student of the late Roshi Peter Muryo Matthiessen. 

You can read more about Radical Descent on her website: www.lindacoleman.net

My Main Man McLuhan or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Media

The advent of electronic media, and by extension the Internet, marks a shift in human history so all encompassing that it at once goes without saying and without notice. Make no mistake, though, new modes of thought and perception are quickly emerging and for those of us caught in the crossfire (between the semi-traditional and the “big other” of the digital future that is) their impact is all but impossible to predict. Luckily, there are a couple of helpful Media Sherpas milling about out there who might be able to help us to scale the mountain of technological transformations! But can we trust them? Well, now that we can make out the cool blue light of the digital dawn, Dan Roe would like to re-examine the ideas and theories of one such media mentor, Marshall McLuhan, and see how they hold up. Through this re-appraisal of history’s most popular media theorist, we might begin to understand our current trajectory and maybe then stand a better chance than the scribes who found themselves on the street once Gutenberg hit the scene!  At the very least we can take stock in what it is exactly digital media is doing to us right now.

PRODUCER: Dan Roe

Dan Roe teaches media studies part time at Ross School in East Hampton, NY, where he has been developing the media studies curriculum for the better part of the past two years. He is also a member of the media department of Ross Institute where he produces, shoots, and edits Ross video content. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dan has directed several documentaries that have been featured in festivals, most notably Ascodimaya, a short documentary produced in association with a Mayan civil rights group and filmmaker Molly O'Brien. He is currently in various stages of production on numerous fiction, non-fiction, and experimental films, including An Interview with Gahan Wilson about his experiences with New Yorker cartoonist Gahan Wilson. He was also script developer on the feature films Monument to Michael Jackson and Here and There, providing illustrations for latter’s poster. Dan is a Ross School alumnus from the class of 2004.

Sankalpa: Art Journeys

International Art Therapist and Art Director Krupa Jhaveri will share the past, present and future of a personal and professional journey as a living bridge for the healing arts. Accompanied by 100+ images highlighting a survey through India and Nepal, experience working with children and women in three existing village centers in India, and plans for an upcoming geodesic dome art center. Her grassroots effort, Sankalpa: Art Journeys, provides art therapy and creative empowerment programs, to facilitate insight and connection through art. This art serves as a bridge between village youth and women in south India, the international community of Auroville, and beyond.

PRODUCER: Krupa Khaveri

Born in the US and of Indian ethnic origin, Krupa Jhaveri is a living bridge between cultures through art. With formal graduate Art Therapy training from the School of Visual Arts, she has experience working with children and women with HIV/AIDS, in child protection, Trauma-Informed Art Therapy, and the combined practice of Art & Yoga. Krupa presents globally as an advocate for the integrity of the emerging field of International Art Therapy, with recent presentations on traditional arts and therapeutic awareness in NYC, China, and India. She hopes to pioneer a sustainable base for International Art Therapy in India.

Why collapse? And what will it look like?

Societies and “civilizations” have come and gone, and the drivers of their evolution and the causes of their demise are many, and for most of them, mysterious; that is, our archaeological tools are still insufficient to clarify their stories through the hazy film of time.  What does seem clear is that overpopulation, over-consumption, and degradation of arable land are common to many of their stories, including those of history’s paragons, the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Roman, and Mayan civilizations.  Also clear is the significant role that societies played in their own demise. Inequality, entrenched interests, and complex institutions made societies rigid and unwieldy when challenges demanded flexibility. 

There have been many breakdowns in the past few centuries, but no actual collapses. Economic globalism and abundant energy-dense fossil fuels have prevented massive famine and have maintained our industrial (and financial) engines. Underneath Civilization’s shiny veneer, however, we note that some three billion people lack the most fundamental services expected by all living creatures as their birthright—adequate nutrition, fresh water, and a clean environment. Even at its peak, therefore, this version of Civilization has failed almost half its citizens. 

In this presentation, we will examine historical collapses, why collapse is probable this century (that is, why societies will disintegrate and populations will crash) how modern (globalized) civilization differs from the previous independent civilizations, and how collapse, for worse and for better, may play out across the world. We will also explore the implications for the East End, Long Island, and New York City.

PRODUCER: Carleton Schade

Carleton’s interests include cosmology, consciousness, earth systems, futurism, meditation, and literature. He is currently involved in a futuristic project entitled Dieback: the Science and Soul of the Coming Collapse. He has found passion in traveling, teaching, and writing; contentedness and love as a householder and through friendships; and peace through meditation and yoga.

Towards a Re-definition of the Notion of Progress: Using Africa as an Example

In the West, “progress” is generally defined as a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage of development.  This is almost always linked to a concept called “growth”...Development from a lower or simpler to a higher or more complex form; An increase, as in size, number, value, or strength.  Generally, “more” is considered to be “better” and if something is “better,” than “progress” has been achieved; e.g., in the U.S., the more houses are built in a year, the greater the GDP, and hence progress has been made.  But at what price? 

If this paradigm is applied in the UN-WEST (my term for everywhere else), we come up with terms such as “primitive,” “undeveloped,” “backward,” “Third World” to describe areas that do not meet up to our Western ideas of progress and growth.  What if we were to abandon that Western paradigm and attempt to define “progress” and “growth” on a more equitable, universal level?  What if we were to apply factors such as:  adaptation to a specific environment; survival skills; contentment; community engagement; and shared resources?  What if – instead of forcing our Western notions onto the UN-WEST – we took a closer look at what they have to offer us and applied some of their ideas of progress and growth to our own paradigm?

When we look at Africa, we generally see a continent chained to corruption, war, disease, hunger, and poverty that does not seem, on the whole, to reflect “progress” or “growth” as we understand these concepts.  What happened to Africa?  Why?    Can we look at the continent from our new perspective and come to different conclusions?  

PRODUCER: Kenny Mann

Kenny Mann was born and raised in Kenya and has travelled throughout the African continent.  She has spent her life writing articles and books about Africa, and making films on African issues...all of which have required a great deal of learning and thinking about why Africa is the way it is today.

Despots, Heroes and Lunatics: Lessons Learned During Decades of Close Encounters

Globetrotting entrepreneur and media executive Eason Jordan discusses the lessons he has learned during his decades of close encounters with despots, heroes and lunatics, including Syrian President Bashar Assad, Jordan's Kings Hussein and Abdullah, nine Israeli prime ministers, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and terrorist Ahmed Jabril, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Soviet and Russian Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, Cuban Presidents Fidel and Raul Castro, North Korean founder and eternal president Kim Il Sung, visionary and philanthropist Ted Turner, education activist Malala Yousafzai, and Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter.

PRODUCER: Eason Jordan

Eason Jordan is the director of operations and communications for Malala Yousafzai's new education-focused foundation, the Malala Fund. For the previous eight years, he helped launch and lead media companies: the digital news network NowThis News; the news and public opinion company Poll Position; and a war zone-focused information services business, Praedict. Before that, Jordan worked for 23 years at CNN, where he served as chief news executive and president of newsgathering and international networks.

Jordan serves on the leadership council of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the North America board of the International News Safety Institute, and the board of directors of the Fugees Family. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the ONE Campaign.

Jordan splits his time between Manhattan and Sag Harbor.