Day 8: Roadmap into the industry

A month or so ago I attended Georgetown’s John Carroll weekend in San Francisco. The theme for the 2011 event was “The Innovation Factor: Driving Impact in Social Entrepreneurship and Education.”

One of my favorite presenters was a Georgetown communications professor who has done research about the effects of social networking on interpersonal relationships.

Here are a few bullet points from her presentation:

90% of the students she polled have broken up via text msg or by changing their Facebook status status.

They don’t want to see the other person’s face or hear their voice.

She says she has observed that people listen only when it pertains to them, if not they tune out and text or Facebook or surf the net. They are present physically but not emotionally. However, presence is defined not by being physically present, but by your audience.

Social networking is creating fragmentation. What is this doing to relationships?

She threw out quite a bit of data and engaged the audience by asking open-ended questions for discussion.

Her message made me feel sad at first, but as I thought about it I became excited about the power of storytelling, both in literature and stage and screen.

This weekend I went to see the movie Bridesmaids with friends. Though I’d had no expectations before seeing it, I was amazed at how the story impacted everyone in the group.

We talked about how both women and men in the audience had laughed; we had wanted an escape for a couple of hours but this comedy made us think, the storyline started conversations that could impact both work and personal relationships.

My friends may think about Bridesmaids from time to time, they may realize the importance of relationships and goals and dreams they may have forgotten. The storyline may even impact choices they make.

That’s what we can do as storytellers and screenwriters. And that is exciting to me.