You tend to think of persuasion as a business skill where sources try to change Other Guys for a large mission, product, service, event, anything larger than just yourself. And even when it’s just little old you, say a teacher employing Why? Because! to motivate students, it still feels exterior, external. But, sometimes, you persuade to leave an impression about yourself on Other Guys to accomplish social gains. Like this fictional account.

The streets in Chueca were so narrow and its plaza so full in those months that it was easy to mill around in such a manner that people on your right assumed you were with the people on your left and vice versa. This was also true in its various overflowing bars; I could order a drink and stand looking bored in the middle of the bar and people would suppose I pertained to one of the adjacent parties; indeed, people in one large group or another often began to speak to me, assuming I was one of their number whom they hadn’t had the chance to meet. Over the general din I could hear next to nothing, but I smiled and nodded and sometimes slightly raised my glass, and henceforth turned a little more toward the group whose member had addressed; slowly I would be absorbed. Which is how I met Arturo . . .

This from Ben Lerner’s first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station. Adam Gordon is on a poetry fellowship in Spain where he discovers his Spanish skills are not as good as he thought they were and worse still his poetry skills may be lacking, too. Gordon wanders through Madrid feeling isolated from others and himself, hitting upon these nonverbal persuasion plays to connect with others. Hey, take a crowded scene in a sociable bar with lots of drinking and you’ve got Low WATT processing and people Cue-ing off of smiles, body lean, and proximity to make friend judgments. Even if your language skills are weak, just look like you’re in the game and esto, you are in the game.

Of course, such persuasion plays are shots in the dark and Adam Gordon misses as often as he hits. And his misses lead to getting punched in the face from angry, drunk, and high Spanish men who think Gordon’s language-impaired silence means mockery. Persuasion giveth and it taketh.

There is a marvelous art of social persuasion, sometimes studied as impression management, shy like a fox, Machiavellians, and on and on with the tactics of getting ahead in your social world. If you like this line of concept, you might enjoy reading Ben Lerner’s book, Leaving the Atocha Station, about the fellowship adventures of a young man, Adam Gordon. Lerner displays a deft and light touch with material that borders on cliché – the young American artist abroad. Leaving the Atocha Station floats through perspective taking, language, meaning, and translation all the while telling an interesting story. I found the book to be one of the better novels I’ve read in the past ten years, especially given that this is Lerner’s first attempt at a novel after success as a poet. The guy is a helluva good writer and I hope he produces more novels.

Elocution lives at TED!

Leave the toga, robe, or stovepipe hat home; casual attire now required for cool public performance! Sanders gesturing required!

Yeah. Technology, Entertainment, and Design changes everything.

I don’t quite believe this, but let’s pretend.

But today’s spring breakers — at least some of them — say they have been tamed, in part, not by parents or colleges or the fed-up cities they invade, but by the hand-held gizmos they hold dearest and the fear of being betrayed by an unsavory, unsanctioned photo or video popping up on Facebook or YouTube.

The Times writer then quotes several earnest Spring Breakers who confess to cooling it out due to the bad press from Facebook.

Camrea Sawyer, 22, a senior at Athens Technical College, was heading to the beach with her University of Georgia friends to chill and tan her already sun-crisped body. Keenly aware of the damage a misplaced, mistimed cellphone photo or video can do, she said she is careful. “At the beach yesterday, I would put my beer can down, out of the picture every time,” Ms. Sawyer said. “I do worry about Facebook. I just know I need a job eventually.” Asked if she would ever do anything some could view as inappropriate, like join a wet T-shirt contest, she said, “No way. I would never do that because everybody has phones these days.”

At least one bartender confirms the news about wet t-shirt contests in decline.

“They are very prudish,” said Margaret Donnelly, 28, a bartender at Tattoos and Scars who has lived in Key West for four years and remembers her own student antics “They are so afraid everyone is going to take their picture and put it online. Ten years ago people were doing filthy, filthy things, but it wasn’t posted on Facebook.” By way of example, Ms. Donnelly said, there are far fewer wet T-shirt contests — a spring break mainstay — in town today. By her count, Tattoos and Scars is the only bar that offers one, and only once a week.

Assuming the hypothesis is true that Facebook exposure causes restrained Spring Breaking, you can see a persuasion effect: Feedback! Especially, Uncontrolled Feedback! When Other Guys get Feedback, They tend to respond to it. Consider this example with Health Care workers, feedback, and hand washing.

Thus, Facebook has finally penetrated the consciousness of even Spring Breakers! Its Feedback function now surveils those Web 2.0 hipsters into restrained, polite, and earnest behavior. No one predicted this as a benefit from social media.

P.S. Many years ago we trusted a travel agent to book us on a vacation to the Bahamas during the WVU Spring Break. We wanted an out of the way place that students would not be visiting. Shortly after we arrived, I wandered into the bar to get my sundown Martini and enjoy the scenery. Three hot blondes sauntered in the room and the hottest one hollered out, “What’s a girl gotta do to get drunk around here?” The room exploded, the party started, and was still going when Melanie and I checked out the next morning. Woulda like to have seen the Facebook photos from that scene.

Yes, Peitho is the goddess of persuasion and also the handmaiden of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. You could say that Peitho was the first Wing Woman/Man/Person/Deity/Entity. See Peitho today.

Hoping to meet some prospects at a holiday party in December, Mr. Johnson enlisted Thomas Edwards, who runs a service called “The Professional Wingman.” For a fee of $125, Mr. Edwards accompanied Mr. Johnson to the event and posed as his good pal. As they negotiated the crowd, the wingman alerted his charge to flirtatious types and helped make seamless introductions.

Enterprising mavens are selling their persuasion services to contemporary lonely hearts and wall flowers showing that the fundamental things still apply. First, the mavens observe the Local.

Josh Mitchell, 27, started his Indianapolis wingwoman service, “Miss Pivot,” last year after attending an event for young entrepreneurs. Romance aside, there was something else that convinced him he had a winning concept. No one, he says, seems to know how to have a face-to-face conversation anymore. “A lot of social skills you used to pick up watching your parents, but now everyone is busy watching stuff online or playing videogames online,” he says.

And you thought Facebook was harmless! They also want mavens who know how to count because if you cannot count it, you cannot change it.

Not everyone is cut out for the matchmaking work . . . Another no-no: overly emotional types. “They tend to think love is very magical while we think there is a science behind it,” he says.

These maven Wingsters follow standard persuasion practice. They meet the client and make plans. In the Local, the maven then circulates the room identifying the Other Guys most suited to the client. The maven will make a preliminary recon of those Other Guys and qualify Them in a friendly way, of course, never letting on that They are setting up a Box and Play for their client. The Other Guy thinks it’s all about the maven when, of course, it isn’t. Later, the maven will bring the client over to the Other Guy and perform that most valuable pickup function: Make the introduction!

A kiss is just a kiss and a sigh is just a sigh, but as time goes by the fundamental things like persuasion always apply.

Flying to NOLA for NCA with United offers unexpected persuasion pleasures. In Hemispheres Magazine observe.

Imagine you behind the wheel of the 2012 Porsche Panamera Turbo Sedan!

The seamless seven-speed PDK transmission lets you go from manual to automatic in a split second, while the walnut dashboard and creamy leather make you feel like Gatsby motoring his way out to East Egg (hastily).

Gatsby, glittering wealth, estates on East Egg, swimming pools, rich friends, big parties . . . nice metaphor with a Porsche Turbo Sedan, but . . .

When Gatsby hastily motored out to East Egg, Daisy drove, not Jay.

Worse still, on the hasty drive, Daisy struck and killed Myrtle Wilson, who dallied adulterously with Daisy’s husband, Tom.

Worser still, Gatsby lied to protect Daisy and asserted that he was behind the wheel.

Worser more, Tom told the distraught but clueless husband George Wilson, that Gatsby killed the beloved Myrtle.

Worstest of all, George then murdered Gatsby in his magnificent swimming pool.

But, other than that, how was your test drive?

P.S. NOLA is different still after Katrina. Fewer people, not as crazy fun, and showing the signs of Disney-fication with more money moving in and around the French Quarter. Echoes, but distant and faint, from that wonderful past. If you’re a foodie, you’ve got to visit Stella’s.

And the related Stanley’s was nice, too, especially the Breaux Bridge Eggs Benedict. Muriel’s still serves as fine and sedate a lunch as you could expect and charms with its upstairs rooms.

Galatoires impresses with Big Easy elegance.

And Emeril’s?  Well . . .