The Psychology of #ukedchat

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I have been thinking. (Steady...)

I was inspired by the #ukedchat this evening. Hence the blog post about "Having Fun". Why was I so inspired? Well, it had something to do with having a dialogue (at a hell of a pace) about a topic that is important to me. It also had something to do with the obvious passion and committment of the other Twitterers. Another reason was simply connecting with a new network of people.

I said that I had been thinking though...

I once listened to Andy Cope at a conference earlier this year. Andy Cope is a motivational speaker, but he also a serious scientist. Cope has been studying the science of happiness - which sounds like a cliched headline from the Daily Mail. One of his major findings/theorie is about "Two percenters and Mood Hoovers".

Let me explain...

A two percenter is that person who always finds the positive in a situation, who is always prepared to say something encouraging even when delivering difficult news, who is the person who others look to for ideas. As the title suggests, these eternally happy and positive people form about 2% of the general population.

A Mood Hoover is the person who sits in the corner and says little, but when they do say somehting it is the sort of comment that sucks the enthusiasm out even the most positive conversation. I think of them as like the Dementors in Harry Potter. The Mood Hoovers make up the bottom 5% of the population.

Everyone else has the capacity to behave like the Two Percenter or like the Mood Hoover. Our behaviours can be directly influenced by the behaviours of other people in the room, and can be determined very quickly because of the other person's behaviour.

Back to #ukedchat...

I think that everyone participating in #ukedchat is a self-selecting Two Percenter. The people are motivated to develop a Personal Learning Network that stretches beyond their school. Why? Because it makes a difference to the learners they are involved with. By the very nature of social networking it would appear to me that this is not restricted to the learners in their schools or classes, but to each and every learner associated with each and every member of the PLN. The committment to be involved in a PLN and something like #ukedchat is an intrinsically positive action.

Thank you to everyone who is involved. I have been invigorated by the discussion, and I'm delighted to be surrounded by Two Percenters. It's a great place to be. If you haven't joined in yet, what are you waiting for?