Don’t worry, not another plea on why we should stay away from social media. Apart from quotes, tweets, articles, and opinions…each day we are collectively uploading 1.6 Billion! photo’s of which 22 Million are selfies to Instagram, Facebook, WeChat, WhatsApp, Pinterest and all the other platforms out there. So it’s not going away.
Same as in the past, new communication tools were introduced like the fax machine replacing telex (yes, I am from that era) or when email changed our lives and replaced fax correspondence. Now we are communicating with our teams or friends in chat-groups and even sending client contracts via WeChat or Messenger using their built-in payment functions. So again, we are going through a period of adoption and how to best use this to our advantage and figure out a new etiquette how to deal with this.
Even though I am often stunned how much online information people are sharing about themselves in times when we all call out for better protection of our privacy (…). I do embrace social media and guess I have figured out a way to effectively use it for my work as well as staying up to date with overseas friends & family. Now back to my topic; I do feel that the instant gratification we get out of the ease to click ‘like’ or ‘love’ is potentially making us socially lazy. Not that I think we have to stop doing this, as long as you do not expect me to ‘like’ it if you decide to post 45 pictures from your recent amazing holiday. However, someone else might actually like it and that’s ok as well. Everyone is different and that is clearly transparent on social media.
Social laziness? Maybe not. Only if we stay mindful that our social media communication is not replacing meaningful person to person conversation. Or as an excuse to not having to make the effort to pick up the phone or leave a personal voice-mail when it’s somebody’s birthday or just to call and ask “how are you?”.
More effort…more rewarding!
My weekend watch suggestion:
I really enjoyed watching this video from comedian and artist of life Tim Minchin. His UWA commencement address using his 9 life lessons. My favorites…’define yourself by what you love’ and ‘be a teacher’.
Final thought:
Have a great weekend. Remember…the first five days after the weekend are always the hardest. 😉
Be well,
Jos