It’s time to say enough to Limbaugh, Olbermann and the cast of political entertainers
August 31st, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Public Leaders, Public Values, Social Media
LONGMONT, Colo. — Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann and the vast cast of political entertainers who populate cable television, talk radio and the blogosphere are modern day lotus-eaters. In Greek mythology, the Lotus-Eaters gave Odysseus’ men narcotic laced flowers that caused the men to give up care for anything important. They were content to lounge peacefully without regard for home or duty. Odysseus had to forcefully extract the men from the grip of the Lotus-Eaters and take them back to the [...]
Read more...Learning limits and self control.
May 29th, 2010 by John Creighton in WarmUp
Tags: Culture, Parenting, Social Media, Technology
Some rough thoughts to warm up on a Saturday morning… How do you teach your children self control? How do you help your children set limits so they don’t get “too much of a good thing?” If there is one thing that is more difficult for parents of this generation to instill in their children than previous generations, perhaps limits and self control are it. Setting limits on TV, computer, food, consumption in general is a daily issue now. Not [...]
Read more...Who’s Your Organizer
May 2nd, 2010 by John Creighton in Snapshots
Tags: Atwood, Friends, High School, Social Media
Groups don’t stay together long without help. We’re like cats. We tend to drift off in our own direction doing our own thing unless someone herds us back together. That’s the way it is with groups. Groups need someone to organize activities and events. Someone must make sure everyone in the group knows what’s going on. Someone must help people feel welcome and connected. Over time, someone must make sure members of the group know what is happening in one [...]
Read more...Advance Your Career: Develop a Diverse Social Network
April 20th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Community, Culture-Structure, Social Media
Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes Everybody,” provides concrete evidence for why we should care about the diversity of our social networks. And, the flip side of that coin, why we should be more concerned about the fragmenting of America. Many authors have written about the growth of self-isolating communities, places and spaces where people choose to associate only with other like- minded people. Bill Bishop documented this phenomenon thoroughly in his book “The Big Sort.” I have written before [...]
Read more...Producer Nation
February 15th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Citizen Centric, Culture-Structure, Social Media
Patrick Allitt describes the United States as “America the Miserable” in a recent addition of The Spectator. The mood of the country certainly seems stressed. But, Mr. Allitt says that American gloom is more than just a temporary blip. The source of immediate stress for many American families is neither hard to trace nor difficult to understand. Nearly one in five American adults are either unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work as my colleague Brad Rourke reportedrecently. Lack of [...]
Read more...