Remember how I said I wanted to call the true medium of “social media” an invisible magic cloud? Apparently that’s not such a far-fetched description. And, here – with something called Sixth Sense technology- is what the cloud is doing at the cutting edge. Just imagine, all the information available to you by every device you can imagine, but without the devices.

I encourage you to take 8 minutes out of your life to see what the future looks like, as shown in the February, 2009 video embedded below. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

In case you’re a bit, um, middle-aged, and feeling slightly guilty about poking around here, trying to learn more about something you think is reserved for the younger generation, you need to know two things:

1. Facebook, the largest social networking site in the world, is seeing its biggest growth in the over-55 age group. (Translation: you still rock!)

And 2. Kids don’t flock to all forms of social media – especially Twitter, which is rapidly being commandeered by the business community.

It’s the kids-and-Twitter thing I wanted to mention here, because it seems significant to me that kids don’t use it. Paul Bradshaw, writing at Online Journalism Blog, quotes a presentation given by Microsoft online communities expert Danah Boyd on why kids are largely avoiding Twitter:

Twitter is all the rage, but are kids using it? For the most part, no. It’s not the act of creating and sharing social nuggets that’s the issue. Teens are actively using Facebook status update, MySpace bulletins, and IM away messages to share their views on the day and their mood of the moment. So why not Twitter? While it’s possible to make Twitter “private,” the culture of Twitter is all about participation in a large public square… Teens are much more motivated to talk only with their friends and they learned a harsh lesson with social network sites. Even if they are just trying to talk to their friends, those who hold power over them are going to access everything they wrote if it’s in public.

When you start spending time on Twitter, you do realize its users skew a little older. But to me, the thing that’s significant here is the reason Boyd cites for kids avoiding Twitter: it’s because they don’t like the degree of public exposure.

In her presentation, Boyd later states, “…many are learning that it’s just not worth it to have a worrying mother obsess over every mood you seek to convey.” Hellll-oooo… bells going off yet?

One of the many good reasons for you to be poking around here, learning about this stuff, is because your kids are using it – at least some of it – and they would really like for you not to see what they’re saying. I’m not advocating spying on your kids; I’m just saying, it wouldn’t hurt to at least become familiar with the world in which they’re moving.

And besides, all the cool kids your age are doing it too.

These are participation tips I’ve honed through several years of experience on various social media sites. If you want to argue with any of them, feel free – that’s what the Comments section is for!  (Yes, really!)

You almost always have to create a user profile. Sometimes things are required, like a username, password and email address. Lots of additional information is optional. Share as much or as little as you’re comfortable with. (Encourage kids to share as little as possible.)

Use a free email account for all your social media connections. Not all sites share your email address with evil spam marketers. But, those evil marketers can still get your address by trolling around on the sites you use. I heartily recommend setting up a free email address on Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, or MSN, and using that as your main address for all the sites and services you’ll use. This keeps the spam out of your primary home email address.

Avatars and profile pictures – have a photo of yourself handy (or a photo of something you want to represent yourself) that can easily be uploaded when you’re creating a user profile. Have a few of them handy if you like – I’m not very photogenic, so any time I get a decent shot of myself I save it for possible use as a profile picture when I need to update. (By the way, an avatar is generally a really small photo or image used to identify you.)

Remember, everything you post is public to some degree. Most sites give you options for how much information you want the general public to see, but some are more free-wheeling than others. Don’t post anything to any service that you wouldn’t want your boss, your mother, your kids, or your husband to see.