Recently I was listening to a teleconference with Alvaro Fernandez (www.sharpbrains.com) who is an expert on Brain Fitness.  He told us [...]]]> I have been tittering on the edge of jumping into the Social Networking world but should it be Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Ning, all or none.

Recently I was listening to a teleconference with Alvaro Fernandez (www.sharpbrains.com) who is an expert on Brain Fitness.  He told us that one of the four pillars for healthy brain growth, yes growth, is stress reduction.

All studies about positive aging show that increased social connections reduce stress.  So perhaps through Twitter or Facebook, I might be able to kill two birds with one stone.

But is an on line connection the same as face to face contact?  Probably not but neither is a phone call.   I had a friend who recently made it through a rough 7 months of unemployment isolation by reconnecting with old chums on Facebook.

To help me navigate these waters I have turned to a local expert Suzanna Stinnett (www.twitter.com/brainmaker ). Her supportive attitude has allowed me to feel more comfortable about becoming more transparent and cyber connected.

Suzanna recommends using Twitter and teaches it as a skill, twenty minutes twice a day to help develop my brain capacity to work in a new way (great brain push ups).  And by the way Twitter is not used by the twenty somethings…they prefer to text message.   Twitter is an “in the moment conversation” unlike some of the other social networking options.

Well I am off to do my twenty minutes.  Care to join me in cyber space www.twitter.com/the3rdact?