Last night, I was leading a free preview of my Raising Your Spirit's Voice work here in Colorado, and one of the things that came out of my mouth was "I am all about Community. Without community, I fear that we'll ultimately be lost and up the proverbial creek." I know that part of why I've always felt that to be true was because the real truth is is that without CONNECTION, we're lost and up that ole creek. Without community, connection ends up being much more difficult. Not that I'm taking away from the innate connection that I believe we always need to be cultivating and touching in to, but there has to be something that allows us to share our citizenship...our Earth Citizen-ship. Hence, developing and nourishing community wherever possible just seems like a no-brainer to me.
So, as I was jumping on to Twitter this morning, eager to suss out juicy marketing tidbits, see what Jordin Sparks or Adam Lambert's up to now, and to find out how the holy grail of "how many people are following me now" indicator was doing (oh joy...the number of followers has tripled in the last week), I had a sardonic thought that rang a bit more true for me than I liked as it went through the old noggin: "Have I replaced alcohol, cigarettes, other drugs, and other addictions with Twitter and Facebook?" Not long after that question, the next pesky ones popped out: "Now that I have almost 100 people following me on Twitter, and a boatload of Facebook friends, do I feel more connected?" "Do I have a greater sense of community and friendship that's soothing that quiet (or, apparently, not so quiet) inner need to belong and be included?"
The clear answer came back, much to my chagrin and illumination, "Well....uh, no...not really." I feel like I know a very little bit about a bunch of folks who are "out there somewhere," but I don't know them nor do they know me. With Facebook, I notice I feel a bit more of a sense of personal connection, because so many people on FB are really sharing their hearts, their lives, and their life walk. With Twitter (at least with those whom I'm following), I hear a lot more about what they can do for me, I learn more ways to simplify my life by having a gazillion funny looking links I can click on to get a free entree into future services, and I rarely know a single thing about "who are these people, really?"
Now, I don't want to be disingenuous. Part of why I got onto Twitter and Facebook was because I kept hearing it's the best way to get - yes, connected - and the main gig for getting your face and your work plastered all over Kingdom Come. There's no disputing that that's possible...I have the 90-some-odd people following me right now, of whom I personally know about 7. So, there's at least 85 people that know I exist - without really knowing diddly about me...yet - but I don't have any idea of who they are, what they love and what they don't (other than their businesses and/or pursuit of all the Nirvana that the Law of Attraction has people chasing after), and I also don't really know if they are getting my essence yet; or, at least, whatever essence I can convey in 140 characters or less.
I wanted Twitter and FB to help grow my business, and it's very likely it will. However, is it going to grow me? If it's true that there are somewhere between 5-10 million people Tweeting, Tweeping, Twitting, and Twatting their life away at their keyboards, trying to get more "connected," and if, say, only a 10th of them are really finding that their sense of personal, social, and spiritual connection is increasing as a result (a totally arbitary number, by the way), doesn't it make you wonder what's happening for the other umpty-million folk who may have to be pried from their keyboards and touch-pads kicking and screaming, in terms of a greater, healthier connection to life and Spirit?
So, while I confess to being on the verge of being a TwittBook junkie, I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to have a moment of spiritual sobriety this morning. I'm grateful that, as I held my wife this morning and felt both her body and love pressing into me, I remembered that s/he who lives by the keyboard could die by the keyboard...literally and figuratively.
As you ponder that, and any relevancy of these musings to your life and being, I invite us all to simply bring more awareness to what we're doing, to why we're doing it, to what we're wanting from doing it...and, are we getting more connected as a result?
See you next time! Thanks for reading and commenting. Heck, let's make this a cyber-dialogue...it might help us get more connected!!!
Article originally posted here: http://yourrelationshiparchitect.com/is-twitbook-really-getting-us-more-connected/
Related article: http://bloggingandsocialmedia.blogspot.com
So, as I was jumping on to Twitter this morning, eager to suss out juicy marketing tidbits, see what Jordin Sparks or Adam Lambert's up to now, and to find out how the holy grail of "how many people are following me now" indicator was doing (oh joy...the number of followers has tripled in the last week), I had a sardonic thought that rang a bit more true for me than I liked as it went through the old noggin: "Have I replaced alcohol, cigarettes, other drugs, and other addictions with Twitter and Facebook?" Not long after that question, the next pesky ones popped out: "Now that I have almost 100 people following me on Twitter, and a boatload of Facebook friends, do I feel more connected?" "Do I have a greater sense of community and friendship that's soothing that quiet (or, apparently, not so quiet) inner need to belong and be included?"
The clear answer came back, much to my chagrin and illumination, "Well....uh, no...not really." I feel like I know a very little bit about a bunch of folks who are "out there somewhere," but I don't know them nor do they know me. With Facebook, I notice I feel a bit more of a sense of personal connection, because so many people on FB are really sharing their hearts, their lives, and their life walk. With Twitter (at least with those whom I'm following), I hear a lot more about what they can do for me, I learn more ways to simplify my life by having a gazillion funny looking links I can click on to get a free entree into future services, and I rarely know a single thing about "who are these people, really?"
Now, I don't want to be disingenuous. Part of why I got onto Twitter and Facebook was because I kept hearing it's the best way to get - yes, connected - and the main gig for getting your face and your work plastered all over Kingdom Come. There's no disputing that that's possible...I have the 90-some-odd people following me right now, of whom I personally know about 7. So, there's at least 85 people that know I exist - without really knowing diddly about me...yet - but I don't have any idea of who they are, what they love and what they don't (other than their businesses and/or pursuit of all the Nirvana that the Law of Attraction has people chasing after), and I also don't really know if they are getting my essence yet; or, at least, whatever essence I can convey in 140 characters or less.
I wanted Twitter and FB to help grow my business, and it's very likely it will. However, is it going to grow me? If it's true that there are somewhere between 5-10 million people Tweeting, Tweeping, Twitting, and Twatting their life away at their keyboards, trying to get more "connected," and if, say, only a 10th of them are really finding that their sense of personal, social, and spiritual connection is increasing as a result (a totally arbitary number, by the way), doesn't it make you wonder what's happening for the other umpty-million folk who may have to be pried from their keyboards and touch-pads kicking and screaming, in terms of a greater, healthier connection to life and Spirit?
So, while I confess to being on the verge of being a TwittBook junkie, I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to have a moment of spiritual sobriety this morning. I'm grateful that, as I held my wife this morning and felt both her body and love pressing into me, I remembered that s/he who lives by the keyboard could die by the keyboard...literally and figuratively.
As you ponder that, and any relevancy of these musings to your life and being, I invite us all to simply bring more awareness to what we're doing, to why we're doing it, to what we're wanting from doing it...and, are we getting more connected as a result?
See you next time! Thanks for reading and commenting. Heck, let's make this a cyber-dialogue...it might help us get more connected!!!
Article originally posted here: http://yourrelationshiparchitect.com/is-twitbook-really-getting-us-more-connected/
Related article: http://bloggingandsocialmedia.blogspot.com
I've taken a poll with the clients I market and design for. I've asked how many clients they've gotten or hot leads that led to actual clients. I haven't heard a yes from anyone yet that Twitter or FB are leading to clients. I see FB as social scrapbooking. We human have a real need to share and we can do that there. It's fulfilling on some level. Twitter is fabulous for the curious brain. The part of us that like to research and know things. I'm pretty skeptical about what seems to be an illusion that social media marketing actually markets. Word of mouth since I last checked continues to take the lead on actual paying clients. Our essence is still needed to be felt in more than bits and bytes.
ReplyDeleteGood... me thinks.
thanks for this post Geoff.
Facebook has been helping me reconnect with folks from high school and college. My ol' friends seems to be scattered to the four corners of the world, and I never kept up with them by letter, phone or email. I feel a wonderful sense of renewed connection with them, and without having to dwell on the past. I'm getting to check in with them and see what's up right now. Facebook doesn't connect people - people connect people. It's just a tool. Never believe the hype of media and advertising, but keep using the tools.
ReplyDeleteSo strange how I am connecting with old friends on FB yet in some way itseems more distancing especially the time -sucking applications.
ReplyDeleteFor example I was exploring Yo-ville and as I was clicking on my mouse to "kiss" or "dance" with one of my "friends" I realized that they are not on the other end of this, I am just clicking on my mouse and that is considered interaction! Very different from chatting or exchanging messages with someone on-line.