The Twittered Brain
This afternoon I’ll be at the World Congress on Brain Injury presenting a talk called “The Twittered Brain: How Survivors are Using Social Networking to Maintain Their Relationships.” It’s based on a survey I conducted back in October of 2009, where I polled about 60 self-identifying respondents about their usage of Facebook and Twitter after their brain injury.
For years, we’ve been aware of the devastating impact of brain injury on a person’s social life, but this is the first time we’ve really seen a strong possibility of countering those effects. Currently, the use of Facebook by people with disabilities is primarily a large grass roots movement, but I think it can be supported and nurtured by the community. We can provide better access to online services, we can offer assistive devices, and we can train others how to use social networking safely and productively.




