October 5, 2016
The relationship between serotonin and social media can allow us to open-source kindness online. I explore how, scientifically, we can scale the act of kindness in the virtual world. I also share my clinical research on the topic.
We are only bound by the speed of technology. There are no geographic barriers and the gatekeepers have been removed. The world of technology has created an equal opportunity space. However, with more and more people communicating virtually, via technology instead of face-to-face, we have a deficit of serotonin exchange – especially when some generations are learning to use technology before they learn to talk. Positive and negative energy (content) can move equally as fast. As a pioneer of social communication, the second verified person ever on Twitter with a million+ person following, Amy Jo originally fell in love with social communication channels because of the positive potential they offered. She shares her current clinical research on the impact technology is having on human behavior – including the emerging world of Artificial Intelligence.
Take a few minutes and ask your friends and followers on social media how you can help them. Your offer to help can be as general or as specific as you’d like and anywhere you’d like – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin.
Use #SpreadSerotonin and let us know how it goes here on kindness.org.
What if we could create an open-source generosity system and accelerate the process of helping one another through technology? We can.
As an early adopter of social media, I originally fell in love with social communication channels like Facebook and Twitter because of the positive potential they offered. After witnessing the influx of negativity spreading, I’ve set out to study how the advance and innovation of communication can become more beneficial for the world.
During an act of kindness, serotonin is felt by the giver, receiver AND anyone who witnesses the act. There is a ‘forward-factor’ accelerator that plays in here. The more serotonin, the more likeliness for kindness to spread exponentially similar to how a contagious disease spreads. This is the basic science of serotonin and it’s INCREDIBLY encouraging!
We can manually spark and spread serotonin within a social media network which can lead to serotonin spreading virally because the number of witnesses are almost infinite.
When micro actions are combined, they lead to macro impact. Think of how much change we could create by simply “volunteering” a little time online. You can do this anywhere, at any time for any amount of time. Secretly, it’s one of the most convenient ways to give back and it has a big impact and it makes YOU feel good. 😉
I’ve been conducting research and identifying ways to scale the act of kindness through social communication to prove whether or not generosity can spread through quick exchanges of give and take behavior online. The preliminary clinical research results are very encouraging! Every photo, comment and post we make in the virtual world does impact our behavior in the physical world too. The two worlds have collided. I’m committed to continue studying this possibility.
My motivation is because I’m fatigued by the amount of anger and hatred online. Given the field I’m in, I spend a great deal of time in the virtual world and can’t help but notice the pollution. We wouldn’t litter in the physical world, why would we litter in the virtual world? We all spend a great deal of precious time online and we deserve to do so in an enjoyable environment.
We are only bound by the speed of technology. There are no geographic barriers and the gatekeepers have been removed. The world of social media is an equal opportunity space. Let’s choose kindness and watch what happens!
I hope you join me.
Kindly,
Amy Jo
