Psychology.
Saturday, 20 November 2010, Sierra Oscar I’m back…
Yesterday’s post apparently won’t be too popular, maybe because I said Facebook could go the way of MySpace? I put so much into a post it’s hard to tell; it could be the stuff about the gerund! I still think that word sounds German but I think it’s derived from the Latin; don’t bother looking it up, I don’t really need to know.
I shall mention Facebook because I have a friend on there who that runs a car spares business and buys and sells cars a little. His business is on the other side of the town where I live . He mainly specialises in Ford cars and he does spares for Fords and buys and sells them a little. I think he breaks late model cars for the spare parts. He drinks in a pub where the beer is cheap so he is either frugal or not doing so well. He has moved premises and into bigger premises despite the recession, so he is probably frugal! He sells through EBay sometimes and complains that it isn’t a good way to sell cars, people mess him about apparently. How do I know all this? He posts it on Facebook, he doesn’t have a business page or Fan page or anything but does post funny pictures, comment on what is going on locally and takes an interest in the fan page for the town. I think that is good social networking for his business.
On the same subject but different! Many psychologists are interested in social networking and I think they could have some kind of influence over it. Psychologists usually look at thinking, behaviour and beliefs and normally look at individuals. They are now looking more at ‘collective psychology’ the psychology of groups of people and even whole cultures. Do people who belong to certain social networks have something in common? My friend said people on LinkedIn were full of their own importance. That is true in some cases but I find them to be quite open although some are so full of it they are funny. I don’t mind that, it amuses me. Some of the writers think they are great and while I think you should be confident and positive I don’t think you should come across as arrogant. I think I come across as assertive and fairly confident but I joke about everything and those quizzes on Facebook where people answer questions about me always say I am funny so I get something right. I do realise that my writing constantly improves and I tell other writers that if their writing is improving, that is good. If they think their writing is so good that it can’t improve, that is arrogant and they have no chance of ever being a great writer. You do need to be subtle on Facebook and not try to sell yourself or your business too much. You also need to help other people. I have a project now to help someone with a business. They have a new idea for a product for children. It is a good idea and they need a big company to support the idea. It is difficult getting all the details using email rather than a discussion in person, but they are thousands of miles away. Perhaps I can point them in the right direction or even just endorse the product as a good idea and be positive; every little helps.
Most of the news I have read this morning was about fake anti-virus software that is really a virus. People are getting phone calls from someone pretending to be from ‘Microsoft’. One virus is the ‘Smitfraud’ virus. You can get a program to clean that but it is difficult to use and I had that a few years ago, I got angry as I looked into the companies behind it. There were about 5 US companies and one in Cyprus. Most of this stuff is run from Russia, but in my case I went after the company in Cyprus and reported the US companies to the FBI. The US companies became very helpful when I had an FBI crime number. Other scams to watch out for are identity fraud. Don’t store password for Internet banking or anything important on your computer and don’t open attachments on emails. You may get companies trying to sell you identity fraud insurance over the phone; I had that this week. I think that is a legalised scam trading on people’s fears. The fake anti-virus scam works the same but is illegal.
I want to do interactive fiction again because I can take the humour as far as possible, and if I go too far my readers will tell me. I can then just push it a little more each time and see what is acceptable to them and what isn’t. This is using ‘collective psychology’ and seeing what is interesting, funny and acceptable.
I have noticed Einstein lookalikes are being used in advertising to associate products with intelligence; it’s quite clever! 
One advert though is a picture of a guy in the rain and he looks just like Hitler, but soaking wet; I don’t think that was done purposely. This has been done before with a James Bond lookalike. The idea potential for more advertising; just think what an ‘invisible man’ man lookalike could do?
I have been trying to think of amusing Tweets and I need a format. I thought maybe rhetorical questions? For example: “If Earth was invaded by aliens, what colour would the little green men be?” I know, it said “Could do better,” on one of my school reports.
Finally, if you have a huge problem or lots of work and it’s all too much; then simply break it down into bite-sized chunks and don’t bite off more than you can chew. I have too much to do. I intend to clean the kitchen floor because my friend offered to do it; so it must be bad. I’ll cook lunch and read a little of the novel I’m reviewing. Everything else can wait. I have word recall problems again, what is that word that means you keep putting things off? Whatever it is, putting things off can be a good thing; it is time management if you prioritise things. My priority is cleaning the kitchen floor, websites can wait. I don’t like today’s post either; it can’t be good every day! That is a problem, normally when the words don’t flow I take a break. Writing this every day means I just keep on going regardless. I need to vary what I write more. I’ll finish reviewing this novel and get back to writing my psychological thriller.
I’ll be back…
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