sparkseshsparkseshwinter issue 2019Jennifer RobertonMy Personal “Appiness”1Nikki LavoieLetter from the Editor0Gawie KanjembaEvery Man for Himself2Lamis AljasemSee My Raqqa3Tom EwingLeveling Out4Toi James15 Ways to Level Up5Editorial teamMindspark Research Internationalmindsparklab.comContributorsLamis Aljasem, Tom Ewing, Toi James, Gawie Kanjemba, Jennifer RobertonArtworkunsplash.comLETTER FROM THE EDITORLEVEL UP!Dear Readers,Welcome to SparkSesh: a cultural gazette brought to you by the team at MindSpark Research International, and our friends around the world. SparkSesh was dreamed up a short while ago, when it seemed like the world was as divided as it has been in recent memory. MindSpark is an agency dedicated to understanding the human experience and finding ways for brands of different shapes and sizes to use that understanding to create more meaningful connections with its audiences around the world. We felt that an attitude of “us versus them” was starting to permeate so many elements of our lives, including our work, which only seemed to further divide us all.Much of our work in recent years has been about how to boil the human experience down to a number or figure that allowed a board of directors sitting somewhere to make a “safer” decision about which direction to go with a product or service. But we have revolted. People are not clean, numeric variables that can be plotted on a graph. Yes—data abounds about our habits and preferences but losing sight of the fact that we are unique, emotional, courageous, challenged, delightful and sometimes confusing creatures is helpful to no one.Enter SparkSesh—a quarterly publication aimed at sharing real-life stories that remind us of one immutable fact: we are all humans, and there is far more that connects us than that which divides us. If you are like us, you may be feeling like so much of the news around us is “doom and gloom.” SparkSesh strives to demonstrate that there is inspiration to be had from everywhere and everyone, and we’re delivering it to you in a nice, neat, free package.Level Up!, the theme for our first ever issue, is a concept that we have seen again and again in our personal and professional lives. The idea represents understanding and grasping a concept to the extent that a real, noticeable change occurs that has positive impact on one’s life or situation. Leveling Up often includes hard work, persistence and—most importantly— grit to overcome barriers, and results in positive growth. Those stories that passionately and warmly demonstrate the arrival to a point of aspiration, the achieving of a long-coveted goal, or the successful end to an endearing ambition. To put it simply: in our first ever issue, we seek to share stories of emotional human growth. We hope that you enjoy and benefit from the stories that have been selected for this issue: they are raw, vulnerable, and serve up inspiration in spades. It’s been a pleasure for us to finally deliver the product of this labor of love, and we look forward to continuing to find the beauty in the truth of the human experiences around us. Most sincerely yours,Nikki Lavoie and Team MindSpark I’ve recently been looking into how happiness impacts the research that we conduct, how happy and sad people behave online and how that affects their responses to online surveys. The work made me think a lot about my own happiness. My struggle with depression and anxiety, how they shape how I behave and interact with others or indeed how I am perceived by others.Most people’s perception of me is that I am a young, successful and professional woman: well put-together, funny, smart and friendly. This makes it seem that I have the world figured out and everything in life is going well. Good job, beautiful daughter, a fun and well-traveled life, a kind and loving partner. I’m always quite perplexed and sometimes frustrated that people have this view of me, because it’s false. It is my own fault, though. Most people know me by the glamorous Instagram selfies and Facebook posts from my travels or a beautiful picture of my 100% angelic daughter (who of course never has a meltdown). MY PERSONAL ‘APPINESS’by Jennifer RobertonIt’s this same persona that I let define me in my work setting. Until recently, I never opened up on LinkedIn, nor did I break my smile in the office. The truth, however, is that life has been and still is quite a challenge for me. I spent years growing up in foster care (when I wasn’t actually running away from my temporary homes or being picked up by the police and brought back). While I was fortunate enough to always be looked after by teachers here and there, most of the time I “bunked off” school. I didn’t finish my GCSEs, let alone do A-levels and definitely did not go to university. What I did have, though, was an ability to connect with people. I was street smart, had common sense and a drive from a young age to make my own way “out” and not have to thank anyone for it.Little did I know, I wouldn’t change my life’s path alone. There would be (and still are) many people for me to thank along the way: people and colleagues who barely knew me and took a chance on me as well as clients and colleagues that mentored me. I was given opportunities I felt I didn’t deserve, and opportunities that I couldn’t have even dreamed of at the time when they were given to me.It’s reflecting on this that has given me the courage to be more open and honest about my struggle with anxiety and depression professionally. I’ve always been quite open about this in private and with my close friends, but for some reason held back from talking about it at work. Recently, however, I shared my struggles publicly on LinkedIn. To my surprise, I had an overwhelmingly positive response. Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, I also received some desperate cries for help from others who were struggling with their mental health.ONAL This is something as an industry we should think about. For a group of people who claim to know so much about what people think, how can we know so little about what our colleagues feel?I’ve drawn some personal and professional lessons from this experience:Professionally, when building online panels or conducting online research, we all need to exhibit some awareness of how a panelist’s state of mind or level of happiness may impact how they answer questions or indeed their very willingness to take a survey in the first place. Respondi’s “‘Appiness” research discovered a series of different typologies of online behavior. Across those typologies we found that unhappy people were more likely to take online surveys than the majority of the population. If we don’t account for this, our samples will suffer bias. We also discovered that unhappy or depressed people are much more likely to spend a larger share of their online time looking at social media or other “escapism” sites. Happier people, it turns out, tend to use the internet to help with real world activities – booking a holiday, buying a sofa, or even finding out how much Motrin you should give your sick daughter. PERSONALLY, I’VE RESOLVED TO ACCEPT THAT HAPPINESS ISN’T ABOUT ACHIEVING PERFECTION - WHATEVER THAT MAY BE - BUT ACCEPTING MY OWN AND MY LIFE’S BEAUTIFUL IMPERFECTIONS AND HAVING THE COURAGE TO SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLDOur online personas should not be fake, hyper-stylized and sanitized versions of our true selves. We should all stop pretending our life is perfect. Very few are. If we did that and stopped worrying so much about what others might think, then maybe we would all be a little happier and those unhappy people seeking refuge or living vicariously through social media might feel a little better about their own lives, too.Finally, I’m determined to take a chance on people. In the same way others took a chance on me, both personally and professionally. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Everyone has talents and potential they might not be aware of. So… be kind. Always.Jennifer is currently the MD of respondi UK. For over 15 years, she has been at the forefront of online research in the UK, Europe and beyond. She has been instrumental in shifting analytical models from those based on self-reporting of consumer behavior to the fusion of data from a broad variety of sources, including the integration of consumers’ passive online behavior. She specializes in complex comparative and multi-country research projects.respondi.commrba.org.uklinkedin.com/in/jennifer-roberton-1799751/Under her leadership, respondi won the MRS “Best Data Collection (Online)” award for a pioneering study of attitudes among refugees in twelve countries across three continents, illustrating that her approach to research not only benefits commercial clients but can be used to tackle and better understand complex issues of importance to society as a whole. Most recently, Jennifer’s presentation on “Appiness” won best paper at the Esomar Data Fusion Conference in Dublin, October 2018. AND MY LIFE’S BEAUTIFUL IMPERFECTIONS AND HAVING JENNIFER ROBERTONEvery December in Namibia, thousands of senior high school students wait for their exam results that will determine their future path. It is always an excruciating wait because depending on how you perform, not only is your future decided, but the mood and tone of your December holiday is set. I was always academically inclined, so I was not really worried about my grades. I already had offer letters from top universities such as UCT, NYU, Kings College, and UC Berkeley – I was sort of an overachiever when I was growing up. On the morning the results came out, I was woken up by my cousin who came to congratulate me in person for how well I had performed. As we hugged, laughed and rejoiced, I saw a look of concern on my mother’s face. I knew exactly why she was worried, but she was always adamant about me going to school.For the next few days, I saw her sell the few cows she had, take out personal loans, and even approach people she has vowed never to talk to again to secure EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELFby Gawie Kanjembamoney for me to go to school. I was set on going to NYU and if I remember correctly, the tuition was about 40,000 USD per year at the time. She did all this behind my back so that I wouldn’t worry and so I could enjoy my December holiday. In January, she finally sat me down to tell me that she had almost secured the forty thousand that I need to attend NYU. I was overjoyed and could not believe it, how did she manage to do this? At that moment, I was just so happy that I had a person who was rooting for me in my corner – my mother!A few days later, I looked at her bank statements while figuring out how to transfer the money to NYU. I felt my heart sink. What I had forgotten to tell my mother was that the forty thousand was only the tuition fees - transport or living costs were not included - and, the bigger problem, that it was in US dollars and not Namibian dollars. At the time, 40,000 NAD was equal to about 2,000 USD – just enough to cover a return flight with some change to spare. When I told her this, for the first time in my life, I saw river of tears flow from my mother’s eyes. She avoided looking at me for the next few days, but I could see the look of defeat and helplessness on her face. As a last resort, she arranged a vocational training in my home town with a friend of hers. I was ready to accept and go along with this. This was my reality, this is what she could provide, this opportunity was the fruits of her labor and I was going to gladly accept it.The next few weeks were bleak, I would see my friends packing and getting ready to go to South Africa to start their careers, I even had a friend who was going to do the exact same program I wanted to do at NYU. I was angry at my mom, myself, and the world. It was not fair! I had worked so hard; I had ticked off all the boxes and I even went the extra mile to make sure that I was the pinnacle of success for any student in the country. I kept thinking, what did I do wrong? There I was, stuck in a town of about 35,000 people which was probably going to become my entire life. I had dreams of changing the world and making FOR HIMSELFNext >