It all started with my friend Katie’s innocent Facebook
post…Happy Cephalopod Awareness
Days!
Suddenly, my creative monkeys were off and running. Within a
few seconds, they had taken me from Cephalopod’s to the impact that social
media sites have had on communication. Now, if you figured out how I got from
one to the other, please contact me; our brains may have been separated at
birth and that both fascinates and frightens me. For the sake of everyone else,
I am going to explain the path my creative monkeys took on this particular
journey.
Cephalopod Awareness Days, they get more than one day?...Well,
I guess that makes sense; there must be a lot of different Cephalopod’s…Squids
are Cephalopod’s aren’t they?...I don’t think I can name any other types of Cephalopods…I’m
going to do a Google search to learn more about Cephalopods…More random stuff
to add to the files in my brain…I bet I would make a good “Phone-a-Friend” on
Jeopardy, because I know a lot of random, some would say useless, information…I
wonder how long it would take before Cephalopods would actually come up in a
conversation with anyone other than Katie?...When is the last time I actually had
a conversation on the phone with someone for longer than five minutes who wasn't a customer service representative?...Yesterday? No, the pizza guy
definitely took my order in less than five minutes…Wow, I can’t remember… Hmm, communication
since the boom of social media sites has really changed how we interact
compared to back in the good old days…Oh sweet mother of pearl! I just took two
giants leaps forward towards becoming more like my mother by using the phrase,
“The good old days!”
My creative monkeys took a five minute break while I
breathed slowly and deeply into a paper bag and repeated to myself, “I am not
my mother, I am not my mother, I am not my mother”…
I will be the first to admit that sites such as Facebook do
make it easy for me to stay in touch with friends who live in other parts of
the country. While my original reason for opening a Facebook account was for it to
supplement other forms of communication, I have discovered that in far too many
cases, it has become the sole mode of communication. Sure, I get to watch their
kids grow up through pictures they post on their Facebook pages or learn about
their new job, new car, new dog and in one particular case, their new pet goat.
I am still shaking my head over that one, but at least when their son says, “My
pet ate my homework”, he is telling the truth. The written word is a powerful
and often adequate means of communication. But there are things that the
written word cannot convey. It is no substitute for the human voice. No matter
how adept one is at writing, you can never really use words to describe the
sound of a friend’s laugh, the pride in their voice when discussing their
child’s latest accomplishment or the sigh they emit when discussing a painful
incident. Human beings are by nature, social creatures and as such, seek to
form relationships with other human beings. And while connecting with others
via social media sites has its benefits, it pales in comparison to verbal
communication.
I am a people person. Anyone who knows me will attest to
that. I love talking with people; I love learning about what is important to
them, how their life experiences have shaped them and influenced their opinions
and I love the exchange of ideas that result from a good conversation. And yes,
sometimes a good conversation centers around something as deep as
existentialism, but just as often it can center around something as simple as your
weekend plans. My point here is this; how we communicate in the virtual world,
impacts how we communicate in the real world. The next time you are in a public
place, take a look around at other people engaged in a conversation. Take note
of how long it is before one or both parties reach for their cell phone so as
to send a text message. Appropriately navigating social situations is a skill and
like any skill, it takes practice to both learn and maintain. Social media
sites often allow boundaries to become blurred and things one would probably
never reveal during a real conversation suddenly become hastily penned posts
for all to see.
I am not giving up my Facebook page, nor am I suggesting
that anyone else should. But I am suggesting that we seek balance with regards
to how we communicate. Pick up the phone and call a friend you haven’t spoken
to outside of Facebook in awhile. Make time in your schedule to sit down and
have a face to face conversation with someone you love. We are all busy, but as the saying goes, “Be not so busy
making a living that you forget to make a life.” Life is made richer by the
connections we make with others. At the end of our lives, I doubt many people
would say, “I wish I had worked more.” I suspect, many more would say, “I wish I had spent more time being with those I love.” So go be with someone you love and
talk to them; if you can’t be with them face to face, pick up the phone and
call them. I bet you’ll both be happy that you did.
And so, I shall end this blog by going back to where it all
began; with our friends, the Cephalopod’s. For those of you who might be
curious, I did learn that Cephalopod’s can be found in every ocean, that they
cannot tolerate freshwater and that they are considered to be the most
intelligent type of invertebrates. I also learned that were it not for the
spell check feature, I would have spelled Cephalopod incorrectly. However, the
most surprising fact I learned was that Cephalopod’s are social creatures. Now
my creative monkeys are wondering what the world would be like if Cephalopods
communicated via social media sites…I am going to call Katie and see what she
thinks.
