As cyberbullying reaches an all-time high, now is the time to shift the focus to social media solutions. Meme is the New Mean explores the transformation of bullying in the new era of social media and the steps you can take to take your power back from the depths of social media.
Does social media have a hold on your life? Would you be better off if you didn’t log on at night? Shani Major has put great effort into answering these questions and more for us in ‘Meme is the New Mean’. Shani, can you set the scene and take us through the thinking that lead you to write this book?
It started with one of my students who was bullied online and then I began to research cyberbullying and social media and memes and then history was made!
It’s great to hear how your book came out of your own life.
Yes. I believe social media is a part of all our lives so I lived different experiences each and every day.
Social media is a huge part of so many people’s lives, so what was the main idea that you wanted to share with readers to give help readers better experiences each and every day.
Love yourself, love others and be kind to others. This is my message and also I want others to understand why we do what we do online when it comes to likes shares and engagement online.
Understanding what people do online was no doubt an area where you learnt a lot of new things. Do you feel this was the area of your greatest learning and growth as you wrote, or did you learn more in another area that you can share with us?
Learning to be confident and trusting my process.
Did you find yourself energised or exhausted by trusting your own process as you wrote?
It energized me. This is a level of expression for me that is fulfilling and therapeutic.
As writing felt a little therapeutic, I’m curious to find out what you think about as you write. What is usually on your mind?
It depends on what I’m writing about, but I am inspired by life and humanity each and every day.
What improvements have you seen in your written voice as you’ve used this inspiration about life to invigorate yourself so that you write every day?
It’s louder and persuasive, the more and more I continue to write.
Has this louder and more persuasive voice, encouraged you to work towards your own author brand to support this voice? Have you started work on an author brand yet?
I haven’t but it’s definitely something to consider. This is my first book so I was just focusing on completing it and learning the process as a whole. The overall goal is to create my own author brand.
I find that one of the best tools that you can use to finesse an unclear or raw author brand is to throw a little creative thinking into the mix. Let’s throw about a few creative questions right now to see if we can get you another step closer to a clear and concise author brand. Let’s start with if money doesn’t grow on trees then why do banks have branches?
Because they have printers.
Fair enough. Okay, here’s the next one, what do you think – can you cry underwater?
Yes.
Why is a square meal served on round plates?
Re-cycled materials
Ahh, recycling at it’s finest. If space is a vacuum, who changes the bags?
Matter
What is your favourite word?
Do
And keeping the action of ‘do’ in mind, what happens when if Batman gets bitten by a vampire?
He turns into Blade from the movie Blade
Now that might be an upgrade for Batman! From Batman to evil mad scientist, if you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature what new animal would you create?
A shark and bear and call it a bark.
*Laughs* Awesome name! With such strong naming you’ve employed there I do have to know what you would a monster would look like if you could create one, and what would it be called. What do you think?
It would look like a huge sad face emoji and I would call it Moody.
Maybe Moody could have a starring role in a possible follow-up to ‘Meme is the New Mean’! Overall I think that was some effective creativity, but I’ve kept you away from the depths of online socialisation for long enough so I best let you go so that you keep helping people. Shani, thanks so much for chatting with me today, and I’m sure that others will be inspired to look at the social media in their own lives from the advice in ‘Meme is the New Mean’.
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Excited to read the book we discussed today? Find it here on Amazon: ‘Meme is the new Mean Bullying Behind The Screen ( ASIN: B07BCKLPF3 )‘.
Want to find out more about Shani Major? Connect here!