{fitting and yet respectful} Meredith at ABC contacted me for an interview about the passing of Steve Jobs. We decided to use Facetime on my iPhone for the entire interview. I snapped a photo with my iPad to capture what it looked like on my end

KCTV5 asked me to come on to their afternoon show with Amy Anderson, and talk about the iCloud and iTunes Match announcements. It’s exciting stuff! During the interview, I shared my thoughts and take on these new updates from Steve and his dream team .

This is a guest blog post from Chris Ronan. He is pursing his Masters of Science degree in Journalism at The University of Kansas. This is his submission for a project regarding “the identity of self on social websites.” Chris Ronan is the communications manager for Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., a mixed-used development on the southern edge of downtown Kansas City, MO.

Picture what a completely web-connected person would look like. What do you see? More than 1,000 Facebook friends. Daily tweets? Regular Foursquare check-ins?

That person exists and his name is Ramsey Mohsen. A consultant for Overland Park-based Digital Evolution Group, Mohsen is a self-described “internet addict.”  His Facebook profile lists more than 1,300 friends and a link to his personal website. On that site, one will see links to his pages on Flickr (4,600 photos), YouTube (167 videos), LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, del.icio.us and friendfeed.

In short, Mohsen has gone “all in” on the social website experience, both personally and professionally. His life is, by all indications, an open book. As a result, he is recognized as one of Kansas City’s most connected “influencers.” Ingram’s magazine named him to its inaugural class of “20 in their Twenties.” He is often invited to speak at conferences or be interviewed by media for his thoughts on social media.

I’ve known Mohsen since 2006, when we worked together on the redesign of Crown Center’s website. From the beginning, I was impressed with his web savvy. But he was 23 at the time and I was certain he couldn’t continue his level of connectivity without it adversely affecting his personal development.

Recently, I interviewed the 27-year-old Mohsen and learned that he has, by all appearances, proven me wrong. Not only does social media not control him, he has managed to use it for personal, professional and charitable purposes. So how has he done it and what can his experience teach others?

Many social development experts are troubled by the degree to which young people are exposed to media and technologies. In the June 2009 issue of Phi Delta Kappan (the publication of the Professional Education Association), Diana D. Coyl writes, “Text messaging and e-mails provide limited or no access to other people’s emotions, and the rich language of nonverbal communication that occurs in real-time interactions is lost. In addition, the quality of family time may be compromised if parents or children are using technology.”

In fact, parents could be the biggest factor in whether social media augments or overtakes a person’s life. That was certainly the case for Mohsen.

Of course, parental influence can only go so far. Mohsen acknowledges that he’s endured a few missteps along the way to becoming the well-adjusted social media addict that he appears to be.

Speaking of extremes, Mohsen’s social web experience took a pretty extreme turn two years ago, when he became a beta tester for Justin.tv. He wore a camera-enabled hat that broadcasted his every move to voyeurs in more than 250 countries. And he says that experience was what really made him comfortable with social technology.

Mohsen has grown up with technology to a degree that few others have. And it appears his self-development has only benefited from the experience.

I believe many of those who are concerned about the potential negative impact of social media on self-development have lumped it and other new emerging technologies with other so-called negative technologies like television and video games. The concern, which I admit to sharing in the past, is that people will become so engrossed in what’s on the screen that they won’t truly experience what’s happening off the screen. That, in turn, could stunt a person’s development of “self.”

Ramsey Mohsen has shown that it doesn’t have to be that way. He’s learned to use social media to augment his life. Inevitably, his self-identity has been largely affected and defined by the web. But it’s been refined, too. After all, his annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, which is driven by social media, has raised more than $25,000 for Operation Breakthrough. Social websites have helped him identify and become the kind of person he wants to be.

I did an interview earlier this month with a journalist from Sun Publications. Oddly, today, while getting my car washed — I noticed the newspaper sitting on a chair in the lobby (it was the first time I had actually seen it).  You can read the full article here.

A bunch of local bloggers were invited to the AMC 30 theater here in Kansas City.  Essentially, AMC’s social media representative coordinated with local bloggers to come to this preview of the theaters before they open later this week.  Obviously with the intentions that us bloggers would create content and spread it through the intranetz like some rabid virus.

Mission accomplished.

Confession; I hardly go to the movies anymore.  I really don’t.  Last movie I saw was Batman: The Dark Knight.  I know, pathetic eh?  I just don’t have the desire to go as much as I used to.  That being said, I was pretty impressed with what AMC is trying to do.  It’s definitely more of an argument to go to the theaters.

So these test theaters AMC created are essentially a “food and movie” experience.  The seats are big.  They serve beer. There’s tables to put your food and drink — and service comes right to your seat to deliver anything you’d like.  And it’s real food too (pizza, burgers, etc).  There’s two types of theaters they’ve got — the “big dog” is the Cinema Suites (this is the one you want to go to).  Here you get a huge recliner swivel tables and personal lighting.  Enough of me talking about it… check out the pics I posted to my flickr account and my YouTube video blog below!

Check it out — the Kansas City Star ran an article that features an interview with me! I really had no idea this was going to be a feature in the Star… too cool!

Read the full article here.

Here’s a video blog I shot of what it was like at the free Pat Green concert last week in Kansas City (Power and Light Live! Block):

Ingrams Magazine, a local Kansas City business publication recently listed twenty individuals in the KC Metro that “are showing promise, vision and commitment to their entrepreneurial ideas”. I’m truly honored to be recognized in the inaugural class. Here’s the excerpt from the magazine:

Of course I’m humbled by the honor (and my parents are lovin’ it) but I can’t reiterate enough it’s the people around me who have helped teach, guide, inspire, enable and provide the opportunities to make me who I am.

The company I work for, Digital Evolution Group continues to make work life enjoyable. Instead of getting a traditional boring “thank you card” or bad tasting “grocery store cake”, they made a “facebook-like wall post” website as a congratulatory gesture. HOW FREAKIN’ COOL IS THAT!?!

Screenshot: http://congratsramsey.digitalev.com

I’ve blogged before about how “…people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn. We are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them and we help them in return.”

I’m living it. I am who I am because of it… and I truly believe in it. While this recognition is nice, the best has yet to come.
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…here’s a video blog I shot at the ’08 Art Festival (this past weekend in Kansas City). I had a chance to interview some artists and shoot some video to give you a perspective of my experience. I met some pretty cool people with some great life stories. I also realized if I ever want to own cool artwork, I’m going to needs LOTS of money.