I'm joining the conversation. The conversation about social networking online and its real time partner , "Face to Face" interaction. As a communication professional, I am focusing on the wave of the future, the sunami of connectivity-online social communities. And you should too. In a morning meeting with Debra Moorhead we discussed the need for joining the conversation at any level of comfort. In order to understand how the current young generation is taking the world of communiation to explosive new levels. People, especially over the age of thirty, need to take a deep breath and approach these new "planets" of communication. See who's inhabiting them, check out the territory, learn about the language and even take up residence. ( In the online social community of Second Life, you can actually lease a property!) Even established companies for mature people...I'm talkin AARP...! are getting into the online social community act!

Why would you spend the time? Because you need to think of the Currency of Communication that you want to freely invest and spend. Your communication Face to face is a currency as valuable as online presence

If you are a parent...You should be educating yourselves immediately about the world of social networking.Our children are spending their social currency online....Investing hours and hours on building profiles,"branding themselves" and sending endless images of their young lives out to thousands of "familiar starngers" they call friends. Of course, if you go on this journey don't announce this to your kids, since they don't refer to this as social networking. They won't know what you're talking about! They believe that online social networking is called Myspace...more than 20 million of them do. So learn to chat face to face about their space. Learn the language of the online communities to educate yourself about how kids now communicate. Then make an appointment with your child to LMIRT . That means, "Let's meet in real time," in MY Space Speak. It's an investment in your social currency as a parent to go on the site and Candice Kelsey's book, Generation MYSpace can help you connect.

Take this on as a journey to a new planet...the world of online social networking is just like that, visiting new worlds...just like explorers in ages past, you'll need to tred lightly. You don't know the territory or the culture...forget even connecting with language. So take your time and learn. In the case of MySpace, you may not be such a welcome visitor. If you've ever seen POS, Parent over Shoulder on a Myspace screen, you'll know the feeling of being unwelcomed. But stay and try to make friends. Talk in real time to your child, not in a pryiong way. They may take pity on you as my 20 year old did and accept me as a FRIEND on Myspace where I've gone for research purposes. And she actually keeps better in touch with me there than in any medium!

I think the answer to the question of how we spend our communication currency is always the age old answer...BALANCE. I think there are ways to compliment the Face to Face world with online connectivity. But as parents and educators know...adolescents are developing...and doing this online looks completely different from child development even five years ago!

In following posts, I'd like to open the discussion of three Currencies we need to balance and wisely spend as we communicate: Social Currency, Career Currency and Financial Currency. Investing and spending wisely on all fronts creates a better, more articulate, connected and successful you.

About the Author

Trish Rubin trnewyorkminute.com