Social media is the ULTIMATE marketing tool – and I’m not talking only in terms of commercial enterprises (and that’s not a bad thing) but the question is, when do you stop marketing and just BE. When do you stop telling people what’s on your mind and when do you start listening to what’s on theirs and when that happens, is there any guarantee that you will not find yourself being talked AT rather than talked TO? Probably not 😛
Long empty conversations and silences that lay heavy with unspoken words. I don’t know whether it’s been brought about by the very world we live in or if they’ve been a constant through the ages. There have been a number of articles and musings online about how social media has lead to the demise of proper conversation (which is ironic when it’s existence was brought about by wanting to connect people and bring them closer together) While I think the internet HAS in fact had a negative impact on my attention span, I have no problem concentrating on things when my laptop is switched OFF.
I think one of the contributing factors to this phenomenon is that we’re so used to browsing other more interesting things on the internet MID CONVERSATION (thanks instant messaging!) that we feel entitled to go browsing (albeit mentally) while in actual conversation with someone! I understand it’s called multi tasking but just imagine how RUDE that would seem if you were to do that in person!
This disconnect in conversation could happen with strangers (which is understandable because you need to flounder around the starting point before you can find common ground) or it could happen with old friends (where you know about certain aspects of their past but because of LIFE have seemed to have drifted apart while still staying close). Where there could have been a meaningful and interesting conversation, there a shit load of stuff the person is telling you about themselves but it all feels empty.
There are those rare times when in a cacophony of empty sounds you’ll hear something musical – the scope or promise of something a conversation you want to be a part of or want to share with your friends.. It could sneak up on you in the form of a brilliant conversationalist or YOU could be the brilliant conversationalist in question. All you have to do is push BEYOND JUST “liking” something or having a two line conversation KILLER “what’s up? Nothing much, you?” (to name a few). A failsafe question I always ask myself before posting / saying something is “Am I completely wasting someone’s time by saying these things?”
So how about I stop talking and YOU start 😉 Have a proper CONVERSATION with someone TODAY! It’s a brilliant feeling. (or you can just dance… coz there’s some of you who thought of this song when you read the title of this post and THAT is pretty great too!)