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When Kathy Griffin met last summer with a surgeon to discuss the removal of the upper lobe of her left lung, and the cancer in it, she got right to the point. Can this wait? she asked. Because Ive got a gig.

She was expected in New York, to film a four-episode role for Search Party, the HBO Max cult-hit dramedy about the bizarre travails of a group of 20-something friends, whose final season was released this month.

It wasnt a run-of-the-mill opportunity. Search Party would be Griffins first TV role in five years that wasnt based on the notoriety that enveloped her after she posed for a photograph holding a Halloween mask of President Donald J. Trumps severed head doused in blood-like ketchup in May 2017.

Griffin known for humor that is by turns bawdy and biting, abrasive and self-deprecating, but always skewering of celebrity culture was never the biggest star on television. But for decades she was certainly ubiquitous.

She played the snarky second banana to Brooke Shields on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan from 1996 to 2000 and was the star and an executive producer of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, which aired on Bravo from 2005 to 2010. She was a regular on late night talk shows with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel, and performed in 20 comedy specials on HBO, Comedy Central and Bravo.

As a comedian whose job is to push boundaries, Griffin had courted controversy before. While accepting a best-reality-series Emmy in 2007 for D-List, she said from the stage, Suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now. In 2013, while hosting CNNs New Years Eve program from Times Square with Anderson Cooper, she mimicked a sex act on Cooper.

But the Trump photo landed her in a different kind of trouble.

There was fury from the right, including from the president himself, who tweeted that Griffin should be ashamed of herself, while Donald Trump Jr. told Good Morning America, She deserves everything thats coming to her.

For others, here was an opportunity to show that they wouldnt always disagree with the new president. She was rebuked by figures like Chelsea Clinton (this is vile and wrong) and her (now-former) close friend Cooper (I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in).

Griffin received thousands of death threats, including dozens left on her aging mothers answering machine and others called into the hospital room of her sister, Joyce, who was dying of cancer. Griffin was investigated and interrogated by the Secret Service, and her lawyer heard from officials at the Department of Justice.

I wasnt canceled, Griffin said, in her Malibu, Calif., home a few days after she hate-watched Cooper and Andy Cohen, the new co-host of the New Years Eve show that she was fired from amid the 2017 brouhaha. I was erased.

Griffin, now 61, has been trying to make her way back since then, brushing up against a litany of obstacles: partisan rage, sexism, Hollywoods fear of getting pulped-by-association, the pandemic, pill addiction, lung cancer and her own reputation.

All the while she has tried to puzzle out who among the culturally damned gets a second chance in our society, who doesnt and why. She feels cast out in an extended Hollywood exile and believes its because she is a middle-aged woman who doesnt have a big agency, film studio or television network financially invested in her professional rebirth.

She does not lack for money she says her net worth is $50 million but she craves the one thing that has driven her for decades: work.

I just want to get back to making people laugh, she said. More than anything else, thats what has been robbed from me.

Griffins house is a modern, boxy white structure of 8,200 square feet sitting on 1.8 acres in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She bought it in 2020 for $8.8 million, which I know because Griffin sent me the Zillow listing before I visited. It is all windows and clean surfaces, and is decorated in homage to its owner.

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On the entry table are her two Emmys (for outstanding reality program) and her Grammy Award (Calm Down Gurrl won for best comedy album). Magazine covers and promotional posters adorn the walls in the front entrance and around the house, including one for Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story, the 2019 documentary she produced and financed in the aftermath of the Trump photo. And prominently displayed by the powder room on the main floor, there is a portrait of Griffin painted by Erik Menendez in prison.

At the kitchen table, eating chocolate chip banana bread made by her husband Randy Bick, Griffin was biting and regretful, irreverent and chastened, angry and vulnerable. Her voice was soft and breathy after lung surgery. But her words were crisp, those of a woman who has hustled for every bit of her good luck since she moved from Oak Park, Ill., when she was 19.

Before the Trump photo she was on the road an average of 100 days a year, performing standup shows that made her a favorite of L.G.B.T. fans, among others transforming herself from the daughter of parents raised during the Depression into a rich businesswoman.

To become a success in Hollywood, she said, she had to be a tough and demanding minder of her own career. But her willingness to assert herself, sometimes loudly, could be a double-edged sword, and she has alienated plenty of entertainment industry executives. (In her home office sits a framed transcript of a conference call led by her erstwhile CAA agent, in which he told her This is why your career isnt more successful and that he hopes she will go back and die at William Morris.)

I honestly never had a desire to make enemies, said Griffin, dressed in a blue pajama set and sneakers, her four dogs (Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, Maggie and Mary) scurrying about. But I keep making enemies.

She learned to four-wall her live shows, meaning she cuts out promoters as much as possible. She refuses to audition, because people should know her humor and her affect by now. And she only takes meetings at home, because thats how she can tell whether agents, producers or directors are serious about making a deal.

She had a long relationship with a stand-up agent but otherwise tries to avoid hiring handlers who take a chunk of her money but dont have the same incentive to fight for her as she does for herself.

The battles she has chosen to wage, however, can backfire. In 2016, 10 days before the New Years Eve show, Griffin contacted Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN. She told him that she was carrying more of the prep work than Cooper and felt she deserved more than the $80,000 her contract called for.

Zucker got very offended, Griffin said. He started yelling at me and he literally said something like, Who do you think you are calling here demanding a raise? And then something came over me. And I just lost it. I just started screaming. Im Kathy [beep!] Griffin, Jeff, thats who I am. She then said to him, I would really feel a lot more comfortable showing up if I got paid what I deserve. Zucker took that as a threat to bail on the show, and in a call to Griffins lawyer, fired her.

Griffin called Zucker again, begging him to take her back. Zucker rehired her, but she said he cut her pay by 20 percent.

Zucker said this month that he had supported Griffins career for years, especially as the former president and chief executive of NBCUniversal, the parent company of Bravo, where he gave the greenlight to My Life on the D-List.

He called her demand for a raise so close to New Years Eve completely out of line.

It sounds like she is acknowledging that, insofar as Kathy Griffin acknowledges she has ever done anything wrong, he said.

In late May 2017, Griffin was at home, on a break from a stand-up tour. Most everything Griffin does is in service of booking the next gig, and her plans to spend a day posing for the photographer Tyler Shields (known for provocative images like one of a Black man tying a hooded Klansman to a tree with a noose) were no different. Maybe a photo could gin up attention and lead to a business opportunity.

Shields took pictures of her dressed in latex, posing like a Kardashian. For the last setup, they decided to satirize Trumps dismissive comment about Megyn Kelly, then a Fox News anchor, made after she moderated one of the presidential debates in 2016. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever, he said, a comment taken by many as a sexist reference to menstruation.

Griffins assistant procured a Trump mask from a costume shop, and they put it on one of Griffins wig holders to give it shape and then drizzled ketchup on it. About a week later, Griffin gave Shields the OK publish the picture. Within 30 minutes of it being posted on Twitter, it appeared on TMZ, the website founded by Harvey Levin, by then a known favorite of Trumps.

The headline read, Kathy Griffin Beheads President Trump.

Once TMZ had the picture, it was out of all of our control, Shields said.

The reaction was swift.

CNN fired her the next day. Twenty-five theaters announced they were calling off her upcoming shows. And Griffins mother, a devotee of Fox News, told her she didnt support what she had done.

She also had to deal with law enforcement, as the Secret Service began an inquiry and asked to question her under oath. Her lawyer, Alan L. Isaacman, said he knew that the photo was considered protected speech under the First Amendment, but nonetheless he and Griffin approached the situation as if there were a real threat she could be charged with conspiracy to assassinate the president.

The idea that he might be able to induce the Justice Department into bringing a charge was not beyond belief as a possibility, Isaacman said. (Press officers for the Secret Service and the Department of Justice declined to comment.)

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in security and legal fees later, Griffin was exonerated.

Some who work in comedy said they saw Griffins situation as not dissimilar to their own experiences, though without the widespread censure fueled by social media.

Griffin tried to tell a joke, but the joke wasnt clear and it bombed, said Bill Prady, the co-creator and an executive producer of The Big Bang Theory. It has happened to me a million times the joke was a misfire, because unless you knew the reference she was making, you were looking at an image that was hard to interpret.

The director and producer Judd Apatow said that if America is still mad at Griffin, its priorities are messed up.

It is seriously out of whack, he said, that she is struggling to get things back on the rails because something went too far in a photo meant to satirize a polarizing politician who was making life-or-death policy decisions.

Griffin spies a double standard in the whole situation, noting that other rebuked figures, like Dave Chappelle and Jeffrey Toobin, have seen their careers relatively unaffected or have regained their professional footing more easily. Or maybe its the patriarchy, which Griffin frequently invokes, amid expletives.

Earlier this month, she was scrolling through tweets about the actor Jeremy Strong, the subject of a profile in The New Yorker that portrayed the Succession star as taking his job, and himself, a bit too seriously. The article generated a lot of chatter and rebuttals from Hollywood insiders who felt it unfair.

When youre an artist known for being difficult and youre a man, they write New Yorker profiles about you and then Aaron Sorkin writes an open letter in support, she said.

But when youre difficult and youre a woman, they call you a pain in the (expletive).

The day I spent with Griffin in early January, social media was filled with chatter about CNNs New Years Eve show and Andy Cohens comment about Bill DeBlasio, who was serving his final day as mayor of New York. Cohen said De Blasio did the crappiest job, before adding a sayonara, sucka for good measure.

CNN stood by its man. Andy said something he shouldnt have on live TV, read the network statement. Weve addressed it with him and look forward to having him back again next year.

Griffin found this galling, but not surprising. Apples to apples, she said, explaining that Cohen made a political statement just as she had.

This example exercised her more than most. Griffin and Cohen have been feuding for years since their days overlapping at Bravo. In October 2017, after being named to co-host the New Years Eve gig with Cooper, Cohen was asked by TMZ if he had talked to Griffin about taking the job.

Who? Cohen asked, repeatedly.

Griffin is still angry. This is a guy that I think kind of wanted to be me, she said, likening Cohen to Eve Harrington from the movie All About Eve. And now hes halfway there.

Cohen declined to comment, but a Bravo publicist pointed to an interview he gave to Howard Stern in 2018 in which he said of Griffin, I got the job that she had on CNN, Im on Bravo all these hours, I get it.

To Prady, comparisons between Griffins photo and Cohens rant are imprecise. Cohen, he said, made a mistake. In Kathys case, the world made a mistake.

One of the comedians who reached out to Griffin in the early days of her crisis was Jim Carrey. His advice: What she was living through was material, important material, and that when she was ready, she needed to make it funny, and share it with audiences.

As the death threats and vitriol continued in the U.S., in late 2017, she headed out on a 17-country tour. In front of large crowds at venues like the Sydney Opera House, Griffin performed three-hour-plus shows detailing her experience at the intersection of free speech and partisan rage. When not onstage, she washed laundry in her bathtub and cried through panic attacks at night, all of which is captured in the documentary.

By the end of the year, Griffin and Bick were back home. She got her first bite from a network, booking a role on Comedy Centrals Trump spoof The President Show (she was cast as the presidents aide Kellyanne Conway). Spending hundreds of thousands on security and fronting all the production costs, she played 24 cities from May to November 2018, including shows at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.

But the physical and emotional strain further eroded her well-being. She and Bick began to fight, even temporarily separating, and Griffin said that a dependence on pills turned into a full-blown addiction.

Though she said she has never taken a sip of alcohol in her life, by the time she left for the international tour, pills like Provigil, Ativan, Klonopin, Vicodin, Xanax and Adderall had became one of her primary food groups. Borrowing from recovery adages, Griffin said pills went from magic to medicine to misery.

She continued to hustle, trying for a distribution deal for the documentary (on which she spent $1 million) and pitching television show ideas. No one bit. Then in March 2020, her mother died.

On June 25, I wrote a note to Randy and then I took a bunch of pills, and I just thought I would go to sleep, she said. I really thought hed be better off without me, that the world would be. She was hospitalized and in July, began an at-home rehab program where sober counselors came to her house daily.

Without the pills to mask her body aches, her back pain became so persistent that she saw a doctor. Last July, she was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer. (Griffin said her lung surgery was a success and no further treatment has been recommended by her doctors.)

The diagnosis was terrifying news, but a more promising harbinger arrived in an out-of-the-blue phone call from Charles Rogers, a creator and showrunner of Search Party. Rogers had seen Griffin on her Hell of a Story tour and had been mesmerized. And he thought she would be perfect as Liquorice Montague, an unhinged Svengali who takes under her wing one of the shows characters. She is very grounded, sensitive, smart and thoughtful in her approach, he said of Griffin. It didnt feel like we had a diva on the set, at all.

Griffin didnt tell Rogers about the lung cancer, or that an operation was scheduled. I was just afraid they would say I couldnt do it if they knew, Griffin said.

As she recuperated from surgery this fall, she got other nibbles too, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this past November. (Kimmel who was supported by ABC amid criticism in 2020 for performing in blackface earlier in this career, for which he apologized introduced Griffin as an incredibly resilient human being.)

Through the tumult Griffin has made new friends, including women who have fought publicly with Trump, like E. Jean Carroll, a journalist who is suing him for defamation.

She has also grown close to Sia, the Australian pop singer-songwriter, who landed at the center of her own media storm in early 2021. Music, the movie which Sia wrote and directed, was criticized by disability rights activists for its depiction of autistic people and for casting someone not on the autism spectrum. Sia was the target of hostile comments on social media; online petitioners called for the movies release to be canceled.

I was suicidal and relapsed and went to rehab, Sia said. Griffin helped her get through the experience. She saved my life.

A few months ago, Griffin confided in Sia about one of her most shameful memories, something you wouldnt have been surprised to see on My Life on the D-List. Back in 2017, she told Sia, she had asked Apatow if he would go with her to Craigs, a West Hollywood restaurant that is a favorite of paparazzi.

I just need one good picture out there besides those that say, Kathy Griffin is a jihadist, she said she told him. (Apatow said he does not recall Griffins request.)

Sia told Griffin she would go to Craigs with her. So last November, they drove together to the restaurant, strategically timing their arrival to be caught by photographers.

We were joking that we were on Survivor: Hollywood, Sia said. The photos ran in the The Daily Mail.

Prady has kept in touch, too. On New Years Day, he texted Griffin to say they should create a New Years Eve show for this Dec. 31.

She replied enthusiastically, but Griffin always looking to turn any opportunity into a bigger one let him know that a one-off appearance wasnt exactly what she was looking for.

Hey, NYE is fun, she wrote, but if Im calling in a Bill Prady favor, make it a cast member of something.

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Kathy Griffin Is Trying to Get Back on the D-List - The New York Times

By Muhammed Aqib T P

With hobby sites and forums having absolutely little to no functionality beyond text posting, social media platforms breaking patterns and rambling, now offers features farraginous of all sorts starting from monetization to live streaming, broadening horizons for social interactions to a level unimaginable. Undeniably, online gaming evolved apace with social media. With its artistically rendered virtual interaction, potential to capture ceaseless imaginations of youngsters, and with an excellent growth opportunity, the gaming industry grew on to new frontiers. Unlike the times when gaming industry merely served a niche market, it now brings together gaming and socialising in a way unlike before, giving grounds to rise of the next new social media. Gone are the days when voice-chat feature remained a far-off dream and when games were meant to be played effectively with bare text chat or nothing at all. In contrast to the traditional, solitary and antisocial gaming, multiplayer games like Fortnite and game-creation platform Roblox, transcends the gaming environment with its highly social environments, encouraging collaboration, conversation and real-life connections. Online games like Roblox, Minecraft, Animal Jam and so many more not only have quests you can embark on together, but also rooms you can customize and characters you can become. With Discord gathering hundreds of millions of users who use its text and voice chat features to connect with gaming communities all over the world, voice chat marks its spot in the core part of the gaming experience.

These days, you probably dont see too many of your friends posting about their Farmville estates on Facebook any more. As the younger set have largely moved away from the platform to more eye-catching and smartphone-savvy platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, many of the popular games of years gone by have faded into memory. However, that doesnt mean that the new generation of phone-obsessed younger millennials and Gen Z kids has given up on online gaming. Talk to any 12 year old and youre bound to find out tons of information about their Fortnite character skin, their Minecraft dungeon, or their Animal Crossing town, and thats not to say that these viral games are restricted to adolescents; tons of adults regularly enjoy gaming with games like the ones mentioned.

In todays digital age, gaming is all the more immersive, engaging and a viable way of networking and community building and with connectivity in-home and on the go, players stay connected to their games and their friends regardless of time and location. The soaring innovations have given way for players to uncover more realistic and fully immersive simulations on screens and lenses, and with online socio-gaming now setting benchmarks, the world is still only learning just how influential gaming really is. Fostering online communications and engagement, a lot of the existing apps focus on connecting strangers and providing them with an opportunity to socialise; a platform to connect, hear and be heard all the while battling. With Socially immersive and interactive gameplays, the virtual world gives gamers brand new and a diverse community to engage, making it a much fuller and more meaningful interactive internet marketplace. Social media having fallen to the wayside, online gaming companies now have monopolized social media group interaction. From giant triple-A titles to crowdfunded indie games all have communities much stronger and deeper, creating movements even beyond the gaming world. The rapid spread of digital platforms, the massive phenomenon of streaming, the growing popularity and accelerated rise of esports, have reinvented the gaming landscapes, and with new game genres emerging every now and then new monetisation models are forthcoming.

India being a talent hub, along with the spike in digital adoption during the pandemic, and availability of cheaper, faster and better internet quality, Indians have access to better games now than ever. With over 300 million user base, increased time spent and monetisation, mobile gaming is said to triple to a $5 billion market opportunity by 2025, and with metaverse now taking the world by storm, a crossover of the same would downright be sheer ethereal experience.

The author is CEO of WAFA Voice Centric Platform. Views expressed are personal.

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Why gaming industry could be the new social media - The Financial Express

CINCINNATI, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Union Institute & University's (UI&U) The Institute for Social Justice (TISJ), founded to provide innovative and practical solutions for the challenges to social justice around the world, announced today its One Just World Resource Center is seeking community input and action partners. Everyone is invited to share their voice on monthly topics which will help guide TISJ as it continues to plan and build content, resources and programs. It is also seeking influencers, changemakers, and organizations that have made a positive impact in bringing about social justice. This outreach and inclusion of community voices is considered an essential step in TISJ's focus on expanding social justice, from the ground-up.

Submissions can be made via One Just World Resource Center https://www.tisj.myunion.edu/resource-center. The many voices will help TISJ understand and identify what the community needs most as well as inform development of helpful resources.

"TISJ is strongly committed to engaging, collaborating, and creating with those who have already found a way to make a difference," said Betsy Martin, Executive Director, TISJ. As an example, the Bob Moses Educational Series is one of the first initiatives under development at TISJ. This changemaker's model of group-centered leadership, which empowered Black people with voting rights and youth with math skills,has inspired many of the community-building initiatives TISJ is putting in place.

"We want to provide guidance, resources, and tools to help individuals and organizations take action in a way that provides meaningful impact," said Martin. "We understand that this may look different depending on your point of view and your community. This is why we are asking everyone to lend their voice to the conversation Log in and speak up, we're listening!"

The One Just World Resource Center will provide individual and organizational support services, including helpful content, interactive events, opportunity to connect in action projects. The input received via the Resource Center, will inspire experiences offered across the entire One Just World platform, including the Digital Library of videos, podcasts, webinars, articles, papers, and research; Virtual Coffee, which hosts conversations and networking; Virtual Community, which provides both physical and digital work and meeting spaces; Book Circle, which organizes social justice book-sharing, discussions, and author events; and Online Events, that will include webinars, podcasts, and discussions.

About TISJ The Institute for Social Justice exists to impact society through participatory and democratic work with individuals and organizations. Beginning with reflective abilities and systemic awareness, it creates organizational and social structures that no longer perpetuate injustice in society. TISJ applies theory to practice through a coalition of thought leaders who are scholar-practitioners, philanthropists, policymakers, community advocates, and others committed to promoting social justice and equity in the U.S. and globally through research, education, and policy. Since its founding in 1964, UI&U has focused on academic excellence, creativity, diversity, and integrity. TISJ aims to reach significant and clear progress toward social justice by advocating for equality, valuing diversity, and committing to an innovative teaching and learning environment that shrinks economic disparities and eliminates racism. TISJ connects programs and individuals that are committed to providing "innovative and pragmatic solutions" globally.To learn more about The Institute for Social Justice, visit tisj.myunion.edu.

About Union Institute & University Founded in 1964, Union Institute & University has been a nonprofit pioneer in educating adults through distance learning. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, Union Institute & University offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degree programs, as well as certificates designed for those seeking to make a difference in their own lives and within their communities. The university offers specialized online and low residency degree programs with high-touch faculty attention, designed for students regardless of where they live and work. Union's flexible delivery models emphasize relevant and transformative coursework taught by a national faculty of scholar-practitioners. Union graduates including two dozen college presidents, leaders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, members of the United States Congress, and the first female prime minister of Jamaica promote Union's legacy of utilizing education to transform lives and communities. Based in Cincinnati, UI&U has additional Academic Centers in California (Los Angeles and Sacramento) and Florida (hollywood).To learn more about Union Institute & University, visit http://www.myunion.eduor call 1-800-861-6400.

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UNION INSTITUTE & UNIVERSITY'S THE INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE SEEKS INPUT FROM COMMUNITY FOR ONE JUST WORLD RESOURCE CENTER - PRNewswire

Bigger is always better. Many of us think this is true when it comes to building our online networks of social media friends, connections and followers. But new research suggests the opposite may be closer to the truth: curating small networks of trusted connections may be smarter in the long run. While this may seem counterintuitive, it also comes with a caveat.

We often feel compelled and are even encouraged by social media platforms, to grow our networks. Consider all the prompts about someone else you might know and who to follow. We all want the sociometrics (that number of friends or followers posted in the corner of your profile) to look good.

Both offline and online, our social networks can function as either prisms or pipes.

As prisms, they broadcast to others our likes, dislikes, opinions, interests, activities, and more. They signal who we are, or want to be, to our network of social connections.

As pipes, they act as conduits through which help and resources can flow. Using our networks as pipes is an important part of how we build relationships. We give and receive advice, advocacy, endorsement, emotional support, and tangible things (like entrepreneurs do, for example).

Studies of face-to-face networks have generally shown that, whether we use our networks as prisms or pipes, bigger is better.

But what about online?

We flock to social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram because its easy to view, share and store our connections, allowing us to communicate with them whenever we want. Thats what makes connecting online and offline so different. We cant search and find a comment we made six days ago to a friend over coffee. We can, however, find and reshare a conversation we had with our Facebook friends three years ago. It turns out thats a really important distinction.

Its when we use our online networks as pipes, not prisms, that small matters and seems to be valuable. In a recent study of Canadian entrepreneurs, our team of researchers uncovered this counterintuitive point and shed light on the reasons why.

We think it suggests some broader insights.

For people to actually use their online networks as pipes for resources and support, three things need to come together. First, we need to believe we have the ability to ask for or give a resource or support (termed exchange). Second, we need to have a way to actually make the exchange happen. And finally, we need to want to conduct the exchange.

All those digital viewing, scanning, sharing, searching and storing capabilities of our social media networks make it really easy for us to believe we have the ability and arrangements to use our networks as pipes. I can quickly and easily ask my online network for something I need and get a quick response. But our research suggests that we dont always have the willingness to ask.

Through interviews with entrepreneurs, we uncovered that the reason is likely that people are really worried about what others will think. This perceived social judgment risk can get in the way of entrepreneurs getting helpful resources from their online networks. We suspect its not just entrepreneurs who are worried about this. Thats because perceived social judgment risk is a product of audience collapse, which reduces our willingness to reach out online.

Audience collapse happens when we add people to our online networks from all aspects of our lives. These might be people we know well and people we barely know; personal connections, work acquaintances, volunteer connections, hometown connections and those with shared interests and hobbies.

By building these varied and oversized networks, and inviting so many different people to join, our willingness to ask for help goes down. With all that searching, viewing and sharing, who knows where our request might land?

Our research reveals that many of us likely perceive a lot of social judgment risk in asking for anything but information from our online networks. We are worried that others will judge our asks as weak, needy, unsure, confused, too personal or otherwise inappropriate, making us less willing to seek help. This dark side implication of bigger is better social media networking is rarely discussed.

If this resonates, what can you do?

To make our social media networks useful as pipes, we suggest creating trust networks. These are purpose-built to stay small yes, small. Only add people who will support, not negatively judge, and help you these are the people you trust.

A trust network is likely to be very high in reciprocity, or the giving and getting of help, because all members feel it is a safe place to ask for and give help. It becomes a really useful pipe network where small, not big, is valuable.

So, if you want to use your online networks as a prism to signal things to the world stay big. But if you want to give and get help, then create a purpose-built, small trust network on social media. We think youll be glad you did.

This article by Claudia Smith, Assistant Professor, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Entrepreneurs! Your social networks should be small and curated - The Next Web

If youre one of the millions of people who recently decided to make a job change, you may be considering how to share the news. Updating your LinkedIn profile is a good place to start, but how should you share the news on other platforms?

Celebrating something new is important, says Lana Peters, vice president of the Americas for HiBob, an HR software provider. You may have found another job, or you may be looking for another position, taking a sabbatical, or taking time to evaluate what you want in your life, moving forward. Whatever the case may be, celebrating that on social media is completely fine.

First, consider the purpose of your announcement, says Christy Pruitt-Haynes, a consultant at NeuroLeadership Institute, a science-based leadership-development consulting firm.

Are you simply informing people of a new way to get in contact with you, or a new career opportunity youve recently accepted? she asks. Are you soliciting help to find your next opportunity? Are you announcing a retirement, or that you are moving to entrepreneurship? The purpose should absolutely shape the narrative.

Do it right by following these dos and donts:

This post can provide a good opportunity to thank your previous employer for the opportunity and for what you learned, suggests Peters. Even if your experience wasnt entirely positive, theres likely something valuable you gained.

You can use the opportunity to share some of your accomplishments, says Pruitt-Haynes. For example, I am very proud of my time at XYZ company where I was able to grow sales by 17%, diversify our vendor list to include 50% more businesses owned by people of color, and lead a staff of 15 to our highest engagement year ever.

You never know who will read that, and you cant miss an opportunity to brag on your abilities, adds Peters.

Social media also helps you provide context around your career journey. To me, the biggest goal that this accomplished is telling a story about that individuals career journey and progression over time, says Josh Dazel, vice president of human resources at Skai, an AI-driven marketing data analytics firm. Take advantage of positive opportunities to share this narrative rather than leaving it for recruiters, hiring managers, or other connections to infer.

Think of a departure post as being on par with a well-crafted resignation letter, says Carlos Ledo, assistant general counsel and HR consultant for Engage PEO, an HR outsourcing-solutions provider. The goal is to show your former employer appreciation for the opportunity you were given and leave the door open for a potential future return, he says.

If youre going to a new job, list your new job title and function, adds Ledo. Not only will this provide individuals who follow you a clear picture of where you currently are in your career, but it can open the door to collaboration with others in your social media community, he says. It can also help you bring in new business to your current employer.

It can help to stay connected to colleagues from past companies on social media, says Dazel. Its a small world when it comes to the job market within a specific industry, so you never know who you will cross paths with again, either as a colleague or a client, he says. Maintaining and fostering these relationshipseven when youre no longer coworkersis a positive step and strong networking practice that takes little time and effort.

Talk about whats next for you, and ask for what you need, says Pruitt-Haynes. For example, if youre retiring, mention that youre open to catching up over lunch or happy hour. If you are looking for a job, share that youre excited about finding your next opportunity in the industry or fields of interest to you. And if youre taking time off, let them know you cant wait to emerge from your much-needed down time with a renewed sense of purpose.

If youre looking for a new job, be clear about what you want and the skills you possess.

It isnt easy to truly understand what skills a person has, or the types of functions they perform within a role, solely based on a job title, says Ledo. Succinctly express the skills you possess, how you can apply them in your next role, and how you feel your experience can add value to a new employer.

If you lost your job and didnt see it coming or didnt feel it was warranted, Peters suggest taking some time before you post the news publicly.

The worst thing that I see happening is that folks are being let go or leaving organizations, and theyre at home and dont have an outlet, says Peters. We all need to give each other a little grace and think through how were communicating, even more than we might have when we were all on site. Its a different feeling of rejection and loneliness when youre in a home office.

And assume everything you share or post on social media is viewable by the public, says Ledo. A false sense of security can lead to posts that can be seen as controversial or damaging to your professional reputation, he says. A good rule of thumb is not to post anything you wouldnt be willing to say in front of a large audience filled with strangers and potential employers.

Disappointment is temporary, but the internet is forever, says Pruitt-Haynes. Represent yourself and your long-term goals well.

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This is the right way to post about your job change on social media - Fast Company