Meeting My Future

Meetup is a social media tool designed to bring people together for meetings, get-togethers, parties, lectures, and more.  They say you can find a meetup on “what matters to you.”

What matters to me is everyone around me and how to make their lives better.   More specifically, my future political career.  Okay, me.  It’s all about me. Toward the end of developing a political career starting from where I’m starting from (not quite square zero but next door to it,) I plan to start using Meetup to reach Arizonans—primarily, but not exclusively, those who vote.

Meetup has 8 million users worldwide.  They have two target markets: organizers and attendees.   Probably, because it’s a type of social media, the voters who use it will skew younger (18-45). 

What makes Meetup unique is its goal is to reach beyond the screen and connect people without 1s and 0s in the middle.  What makes Meetup risky is the same thing:  Anytime you deal with the public, 99.99% of them are wonderful, law-abiding, apple pie loving, cool people you’d be happy to invite into your home and introduce to your eligible daughter.   Then you have the other .01%.  You know, the ‘there’s something about them, will you walk me to my car’ people.   It’s important to keep your eyes open, remember basic personal security, basic internet security, basic id theft security, and to keep a can of pepper spray handy.

I predict Meetup will continue to grow and avoid the pitfalls of some social media in the future because it’s not super trendy.  It’s an invitation to old fashioned people-to-people events.  Or even new-fangled ones but you get the point: People talking to people about subjects they’re interested in wasn’t invented by the internet or social media and isn’t going away.         

I have just recently began using Meetup when I discovered an eco-house group event via Google.  I’m interested in the tiny house movement not because I could ever live in that small a space but because I admire the smart, efficient design.  I have signed up to attend a Meetup event at a tiny house and take a tour.  Although the tour will probably be one person at a time.

My Next Steps

I am developing a plan for my future.  Don’t get me wrong: I’ve had plans before but in general, they had one fatal flaw:  They relied too much on elements out of my control.

My most recent previous plan included making a career change to political speechwriter.  My big goal.  My dream job.  I love to write. I want to help people with my writing. I have lots of political opinions.  I’ve given award-winning speeches.  The big problem:  I couldn’t find the dream candidate to write for.  There are lots of smart public servants but is there one I agree with on ALL the major issues?  And enough of the minor ones that I could say, convincingly and with a straight face, “Yes!  I agree with that!”

The search went on.  And on.  And then I looked in the mirror.  That’s right.  If I need a candidate I can agree with 100%, why not me?

I’m not delusional.  I’m not hoping to be anywhere near the nuclear codes or even national office.  But there are enough state and local positions that affect people’s everyday lives that could use what I have to offer.  (Okay, before I give that as a stump speech, I need to spiff up that message a lot.)

Here’s my social media plan to promote my political career:

I will use Facebook, Twitter, blogging and the occasional YouTube post to get out my message.  I will especially focus on retweeting with people I respect in an effort to gain more followers.

Each post will

• share my opinion on an issue including suggested solutions
• speak in a way that’s relatable to people who don’t like to get into the political weeds as much as I do
• be witty but not mean
• seek to build bridges of understanding if not agreement

Although this is a long-term plan, taking 2-4 years, my goal will be to make a targeted post on Facebook and Twitter once a week and blog once a month.  I will move to blogging once a week after the first year.

The measure of my success: My election.

Whatever Happened to Pong? Or You Gaming Kids Get Off My Lawn

Admittedly, I’ve never been one for playing games.  Even board games or card games.  I blame my childhood.  In my chemically dependent home, the only time we played games was during enforced family time. Victory and defeat had long-lasting consequences.  We took it seriously:  Our problem is we don’t do things as a family! We’re playing this together!  Isn’t this fun?  Why are you crying?

In my twenties I had a brief flirtation with Trivial Pursuit. I won every time. Then I lost.  Where did the fun go? 

For my current Intro to Social Media class, I played Trivia Crack through Facebook. I played it on my lunch hour on my work PC. Perhaps it was because of my earlier relationship with Trivial Pursuit but I found the questions extremely simplistic.  I missed one out of the first fifty and then an ad came up.  Is that the punishment for getting a wrong answer?   I don’t think I’ll play this game again. 

I have used Duo Lingo and was surprised to learn that it was developed using gaming theories.  It makes sense.  I like Duo Lingo and enjoy using it on my smartphone when I’m stuck in a waiting room somewhere.  It feels like I’m making good use of my time instead of wasting it.  It’s game-like but actually teaches you something. Unlike Trivia Crack which seems to me designed to make you think you’re smart.

I get the invitations: Candy Crush, Farmville, Angry Birds.  With my carpal tunnel issues from decades of working on computers, I’ll put the controller/smart phone down and read a book.