Thursday, April 14, 2011

How Do We Keep Up In Today's World??

This is a blog post I have been meaning to write for awhile now. You see...I often tweet my thoughts or opinions on various topics quite often and I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter as a result. You can only fit in so many words in a 140 character tweet and you can send out multiple tweets to get your point across, but in reality, writing out your thoughts and feelings is so much easier within a blog. I noticed that my last post on this blog was at the end of February when I was processing what was going on in my life at that time and how I wanted to manage how I used Twitter.

It has dawned on me after I read this excellent post by Monica Wright that what she shares and the questions she asks at the beginning of the post really resonated with me. I posted them below again for you to think upon...

What do my social actions say about my productivity?
How are my actions perceived?
Am I wasting my time posting and engaging in useless conversations?
Are my connections and conversations producing value, not just to me, but to my work as well?

Monica goes into more depth about how these questions made her realize how participating in social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, etc. can often feed her urge to feel important or to be seen by others. It brings on a conflict of overexposure vs. obscurity.

Monica linked to another article written by Dana Lookadoo called "Getting Control of your Social Media Life." In that article, Dana goes into detail about how so many people struggle with figuring out how to find the time to do social media and there are some who just can't stay away from it. We are bombarded on all fronts by information that just keeps coming and never lets up. Whether it is via TV, online, radio, advertisements, word of mouth, etc., we are fed information at an incredible rate.

Much like Dana shares, there are many who admit that social media feeds a real need they have in their life and one of the biggest needs we each have is to feel accepted or looked upon as someone who provides value to another. Some people admit social media help feeds their ego. Others share that receiving a DM or tweet from others can feel like a drug. It excites them. A shot of dopamine is given with a jolt! And they keep craving more of the same. Some of us feel like we need to get as many followers or friends as possible so we feel important, even if it is only online. The quest for the latest news or "what's happening with those I follow?" can suck us into hours and hours of constant updates that never end until we make the choice to turn it off.

Don't get me wrong. I know the value of Twitter also and have met many people in the KC area and beyond through this wonderful channel and some of them I count as good friends now. For that, I am grateful. However, it has dawned on me more than once to think about why I use Twitter or engage with others via this channel. I really do think it is, for me, the need to feel connected with others in a virtual sense. Nothing can replace real, face to face conversations with people, but when that is not always possible, Twitter does give that connection with those you wish to follow and keep up to date on what is going on in their world.

Each of us is like an air traffic controller in our own personal mission-control tower as incoming info comes at us constantly. With all of the methods that we can be interrupted with, it can feel strange if more than a few minutes passes without an interruption. Immediately we think..What did I miss? Am I out of the loop? Very often, we compulsively check our messages, tweets, emails, etc. even when there is no need to. We have been accustomed to an age of constant distraction. For those who have always struggled with feeling accepted, it is even a tougher habit to break to feel like we always need to check to see if someone sent us a message, tweet, or email. To be honest, I tend to fall into that camp of feeling I need to check all the time to see what is going on.

Like I shared earlier in this post, we do not want to feel obscure or invisible to others. Without realizing it, we are losing our capacity to savor the moments when we have no interruptions. Never before has it been so easy to stay in touch with so many people electronically, but rarely has it seemed so difficult to maintain genuine human closeness. That is why I love to get out in the woods to hike or experience nature and be far away from distractions the world throws my way once I get back into the flow. Each of us needs time to disconnect and think about how the constant flow of information or the peer pressure we feel to be visible to others can make a major impact on us in a not so good way. Without meaning to, we are training ourselves to constantly be on the alert for interruptions. Unless we are careful, we now live piecemeal lives in a piecemeal world. Continuous partial attention is the result.

In the days ahead, I will be sharing more of my thoughts on this topic and how I am trying to scale back more to focus on those things that matter in the long run vs. always checking to see what is the latest tweet or reply sent via email, Twitter, etc. Some of you may be able to identify with what I shared in this post and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I will be sharing the ups and downs as I experience them in my goal of becoming more disconnected from always feeling the need to be "always on" via Twitter, Facebook, etc. and how I am focusing more on the close relationships in my life. More than ever, we need to grab hold of the distractions that can so easily creep into our lives and make sure we are focused on the right things or people that matter in the long run. Looking forward to sharing this journey with you.

Until next time...

No comments: