Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Let's Go Natural!
We are living in a time where it has become more and more fashionable and acceptable to go natural. Many people, including myself, have abandoned the world of relaxers or have released their addiction to the “straight dope” as the naturalist call it. Everyone is going natural and becoming more organic conscience.
If we can come together to start such a great “movement” when it comes to our something as basic as our hair imagine what would happen if we all decided to go natural with our connections and relationships.
Social networks have broken the barriers of space and time, enabling us to communicate on a 24/7 basis with more people than ever before. It appears that the focus has now turned to quantity versus quality, Superficiality versus authenticity! In an ironic twist, social media has managed to make us less social; a substitute for the real thing.
How do we communicate effectively and build deeper, more authentic relationships when we utilize only words (some as little as 140 characters) instead of voice, face and body expression to get all the important and powerful distinctions that often contradict the words?
With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected – and potentially more disconnected – than ever before.
Here are some tale tale signs we are less connected now more than ever:
1. Anyone can hide behind a text, e-mail, or Facebook post. The ever evolving twitter platform, projecting any image they want and creating the illusion of their choosing. We can be whoever we want to be. And without the ability to receive, otherwise organic, nonverbal cues, our audiences haven’t got a clue.
2. You can know a lot of people and even be popular online, but never develop real connections. If the dynamics of the relationships we pursue are not adequate, they won’t bring any perceptible value in your life. The truth is, online we spend great lengths hiding who we really are only to settle for superficial pseudo relationships.
3. Our ability to build and maintain healthy relationships is the single most important factor in how we get along in every area of life. We cannot ‘do life’ alone. Most of us have learned how miserable life really can be when you are cut off from meaning connections. All of life’s successes come from initiating relationships with the right people and then strengthening those relationships by being authentic.
‘Social media’ is making us less social. We’re disconnecting from the real world. I’ve been guilty many, many times of being at an event where every single person, including me, spent the first 5-10 minutes checking in on Facebook or Foursquare, taking a picture of the location on Instagram, reading their Twitter feed, checking Facebook notifications, and even emails.
I believe it’s time to go natural. To eat meals with friends and loved ones and not care about what else is going on in our “social” network. Take time to disconnect, relax and take in the beauty around them. This is the “organic” world that produces authentic and healthy relationships.
I remember being on vacation and everywhere I walked, I noticed more people than not staring at their phones and not looking around. They were at the dinner table eating, while headstrong into their phone. They were at the pool soaking up sun, but still hooked on their mobile device. They were on the beach, not looking at the amazing scenery, not communicating with the people around them, not experiencing that moment, but instead mesmerized by their Smartphone and tablets. At night they were in restaurants, clubs and bars hypnotized by the glow of their own phone.
Without saying anything at all, we’ve said to each other that we’re more interested in what’s going on everywhere else other than those that we’re with, even though that might not consciously be the case. As we keep playing into this behavior we’re becoming less present with those that are near us in social settings.
My hope simply put is for us all to slow down just a bit each day until we are finally taking in the beauties around and cultivating truly wholesome relationships along the way.
© 2013, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.
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