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UPDATED: April 8, 2022 at 12:20 p.m.

Geena Matuson is an arts technologist, educator and speaker who graduated from Syracuse University with her master’s degree in arts journalism in 2019. Matuson’s talk, titled “Reject the Disconnect,” will explore how people can use social media to connect themselves with the world around them.

“We have so many tools for connection, so why do we feel so disconnected?,” Matuson said. “Learn how to reject the disconnect, using your tools in a healthy way to connect with yourself and the world around you.”

Matuson sat down with The Daily Orange to discuss her career, what attendees can expect this weekend and how she’s preparing for the event.

The transcript of the interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Orange:

The title of your TED Talk is “Reject the Disconnect.” Can you explain what you plan to talk about, and does the title of the talk have to do with anything you have planned?

Geena Matuson:

It comes from the talk itself. “Reject the Disconnect” is … a bit of a paradox. We tend to reject ourselves. And so I’m suggesting that instead of rejecting ourselves, let’s reject the disconnect and start sharing our own stories. It’s largely focused on using social media as a tool in a healthy way to communicate our story. That way we connect with ourselves and others rather than rejecting ourselves.

The D.O.:

Why is this topic important to you? How did it first come to you?

G.M.:

I suppose I would say the topic itself is really about accepting who we are, our feelings, our needs and our whole personhood. And so over time, because I’ve really spent so much time coming to understand how our bodies and our brains work, I’ve been able to really utilize different lenses to communicate this idea like extended metaphors.

This is what I talk about all the time, all day. I can talk about feelings, I can talk about connection, I can talk about how we can do these things with ourselves and others and meet our needs and live fulfilled lives. I chose the lens of social media because I felt it really would jive with the students, and also it’s something that I do. Social media was a huge, huge tool in my life that helped me escape from an abusive home environment. It was a place where I can be myself, which is not something I was really able to do at home.

The D.O.:

Along with students, do you have anyone you want this message to go out to specifically?

G.M.:

Oh, gosh, well, I guess I would say social media users, which is actually half the world’s population. I really think, Gen, I don’t know, X,Y and Z. That generation, from a generational standpoint, that’s who I would love to hear this, because it is so prevalent as a part of our lives.

So many of the people born today grew up on social media. But I think a lot of people who might struggle with codependency might struggle with people pleasing, they might struggle to feel like they have a community, they feel isolated in their daily life. You know a lot of people, they grow up with this one narrative in their head and if they don’t seem to fit into this narrative, they struggle the rest of their lives. And I think it’s really important to understand, while you don’t necessarily have power over your situations, you have power over your body and over yourself. You have the power to build your own community, build your own safe space, recreate a narrative that you fit into.

The D.O.:

You graduated from SU with your master’s in 2019, correct?

G.M.:

Yeah Newhouse, the Goldring Arts Journalism Program.

The D.O.:

How often do you visit Syracuse? How close do you hold the school to your heart?

G.M.:

I live here, so yeah. I’m just in Clinton Square.

The D.O.:

Awesome, so still very close to home and your alma mater.

G.M.:

I appreciated my experience so much, just in the area of Syracuse itself, that I just felt like this is where I needed to be to do what I was about to do next. And that was really, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever had that feeling. It’s not like I get that feeling a lot. So I listened.

The D.O.:

Why do you think that this talk might be important for the SU community? What do you hope that SU can get out of this talk?

G.M.:

Whether you work in academia or you’re a student, a lot of us are taught that there’s sort of a narrative to follow, and a lot of us don’t understand we can actually be ourselves while still earning a living, still being successful in the way we define it and still living a fulfilled life. I think a lot of people, especially teens, sacrifice a lot of who they are because there’s this fear of, “Oh, nope, I have to now get everything right. I can’t make mistakes. Playtime is over.” So I think that this could just be a nice way to reframe how we think about the tools at our disposal, how we, well, shift our perspective about how things work.

The D.O.:

How did you get the opportunity to give a TED Talk this year?

G.M.:

Well I happened to see a social media post from the TEDx team and I was like “Oh you know what I would really like to speak” so I applied.

The D.O.:

What are you doing to prepare? I know you’ve done talks in the past, but do you get any pre-stage jitters before you go on stage or anything to prepare for the talk?

G.M.:

I’m largely an auditory learner. So I actually record myself delivering my speech, and then I listen back to it a few times, because I found that when I hear my own voice, when I’m not focused on speaking it, I’m able to memorize things much more easily. I’ll speak alongside my speech, or the recording, as I’m playing it back to practice. I try to stand — like, I try to be in the same body position I’ll probably be in. I know it sounds funny, but when I’m sitting, I can actually deliver the speech more easily than when I’m standing. But to be standing, I have to practice a lot more.

And I have like three friends who I practice with, because having a person that I’m looking at on the other end helps me to prepare for a sea of faces. I want them to just totally be themselves as a listener, because that way — well, I don’t have control over the audience. So I want to make sure that I am prepared. And I have my speech well-managed, so I can deliver it no matter what happens in the audience, you know?

April 9 :x::thought_balloon:

A photo posted by tedxsyracuseuniversity

The D.O.:

What would you say you’re most excited for this coming weekend?

G.M.:

I live in an apartment building that has kind of thin walls, so I almost don’t feel like I’ve been practicing with my full energy or vibrato. (I’m) just excited to be up there and really just deliver this, and share it fully.

I think after the event, I’m really excited to have my story out there. It’s really important to me that I really just share my truth with the world, so I’m really excited for that to just be out there and attract people who want to get to know the real me.

I am really excited to inspire people and see how ultimately, these ideas help people shift their own perspective to see how they apply these things. To see the impact that not only my words had, but the ideas that I’m simply channeling. It’s like I’m channeling energy from the whole world. And I’m just sharing it. I’m like a messenger facilitating this information.

The D.O.:

Your website said that you are an arts technologist. Could you go into a little bit more depth of what you do and what your work entails?

G.M.:

Well, art technology was a term that my adviser a few years ago gave me because I’m really good with technology and the arts. I actually have an undergrad degree in film and video productions. So I grew up just understanding how to make websites as well. There’s just a lot of tech stuff I understand. There’s a lot of building, definitely a builder. Not physical constructs out of wood or something, but just, yeah, technology ideating.

I’m not terribly clear on it either myself, and that’s why I’m rebranding. I’m working on it, but ultimately, it’s going to be a lot more centered on alignment, fulfillment and helping people to build the life they want through creativity. It really comes down to creativity in all I do as a means to connect with your feelings. So you can connect with others, and that will play a large role in how I start communicating myself going forward. So I think arts technologist was this sort of preliminary term I was using before I really started to understand creativity.

The D.O.:

Is there anything that you hope to accomplish in the future? Anything you see for yourself?

G.M.:

Wow, what would I not love to do? I guess it comes down to or goes back to the idea of helping people shift their perspective. I just love to share information. I love learning new ideas, but also coming to understandings of how the brain and the body and the world work independent of all the man-made rules we come up with, and really helping people to to shift their perspective and see “Oh, look at that, the world is so much bigger than I thought it was,” in a way that’s kind of a comfort because if you’re kind of dissatisfied with the way things are. Well, guess what? That’s just one small system, and it’s all in your head. You can change it. That’s something I really love to do. I love shifting people’s perspectives and all I do and giving them a sense of clarity.

CORRECTIONS: A previous version of this post attributed part of a quote to Geena Matuson instead of The D.O. The post also used the words “unfair” instead of “a comfort” and “just satisfied with” instead of “dissatisfied with,” as well as omitted Gen Y and Z in a sentence about the TED Talk’s intended audience. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

Published on April 7, 2022 at 1:49 am

Contact Siron: sthoma10@syr.edu | @sironthomas