Why is it so hard sometimes to pick up conversations across different social media?
It may be my age but I sometimes find it quite difficult picking up a conversation across two different platforms. Especially where the one platform is the 'real world platform' - the ultimate social media. Say you exchange some interesting bits of information on a topic on Twitter or Facebook with a contact. Then - a few weeks later - I don't think I'd have any trouble carrying on with it a few weeks later online. However, if instead of picking it up online, it is dropped into a conversation in the real world then I have a challenge. Someone might say "hey! So what do you think of Metropolis Hastings / Inhaled Insulin / eco-toilets / Bon Jovi?" (or whatever the online discussion was about). I'd have a stunned moment with the internal voice of "eh? what on earth?". Or, worse still, the other person may expect ME to pick up on the conversation we had on Twitter two weeks ago ... but I don't ... and then they feel I'm being rude. Should people carry a readily-identifiable badge with their online avatar on so that it can prompt disadvantaged people like me who can't remember what they were talking about or can't link online persona and real person together? This is a context-dependent memory challenge. Maybe it's because I have greatly exceeded my Dunbar's number of 150 social contacts that my brain can keep up with. Maybe it's because I am not trying hard enough and assume that the "real world" is where I can relax [I spend most of my time 'working remotely']. I don't know. Maybe I should just get out more often.
