ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of the power of social media on connection, engagement, and influence. It serves to offer some basic knowledge and a fundamental groundwork about social media topics to be explored in future chapters. Content in this chapter introduces a general historical overview of social networking’s early beginnings, as well as art therapy’s history of using the Internet for networking and connection. Additional content includes the impact of mobile connection, as well as definitions, genres, examples, and features of popular social media sites available at the time of this writing. This includes social media sites for the general masses, professional networks, media sharing, content communities, blogs, microblogging, and social bookmarking. Examples of how art therapists are engaging with these sites and the general relevance to art therapy are described. Finally, theoretical considerations such as six degrees of separation and three degrees of influence are presented to explore social media considerations for connection and influence. An art experiential and discussion questions are provided to further explore the chapter content.
