Social Media is
probably one of the most important communicative tools present out there today.
Not a minute goes by without someone going ‘online’. Thanks to its growing
demand and competition, we have many platforms to voice out our opinions today.
I am known
among those close to me to
take my sabbatical on Fridays. Being privileged to own my own clinic, I am
allowed to take off from work and focus solely on spending time at home with my family. Last week however, I
decided to take it a step further. I decided to go offline completely for just
that one day. What I wasn’t really prepared for was to switch off my whatsapp
along with it!
As the day
progressed, the temptation to go online and see if there were unread messages
kept increasing. I would spend time with my son and my wife and yet after a few
hours I would want to go back and check it.
I did go online
two to three times during the day to see if there were any personalized
messages and I even took time to reply to those. I stayed away from groups but
I could see the messages
were piling up.
Needless to say
before I went to bed that night, I opened it up to find 250 messages from over
18 conversations!
I replied to
whatever was necessary but it got me thinking. I realized that being online was
a part of my life and that I couldn’t really stay away from it.
In a world today
where many businesses and meetings takes place over social media than face to
face, switching off in an online world would seem impossible! Everything
happens online today. We book our tickets online, we buy things online (veggies
included!), we pay our bills online, we even read newspapers online! Imagine how
many deals would not take place if go offline? Only when we pause and think about it do we realize how
dependent have we actually become to the online world!
Here’s
one maybe we’ve never thought about: we prefer to talk/ chat/ communicate
online!
Earlier simple texting
would do. With the advent of emoticons however, online communication seems to
have gone to a whole new level.
One would have
to ask though: Are our voices
heard anymore when we come face to face with an individual?
We love to take
selfies and pose with
people we meet or socialize with, we take pictures and flash it on Facebook,
Instagram, and
Twitter etc. We can spend hours chatting with people online. It would make it
seem like we are very social.
But are we
really that social?
For instance, I know those people who can
chat online more than talk! They can text you many things online and hold up
the conversation for long but won’t say much when you sit with them over
coffee.
Most of the studies on communication as a whole
states that body language accounts for more than the words we speak. I think
Will Smith in the movie 'Hitch' summed it up perfectly when he said, “Sixty percent of
all human communication is nonverbal, body language; thirty percent is your
tone. So that means that ninety percent of what you're saying ain't coming out
of your mouth.”
If the words
we’re saying only accounts for ten percent of our communication, you begin to think
if real communication could ever take place online?
Can today’s online platforms actually replace old school, sitting across the table conversations?
Can today’s online platforms actually replace old school, sitting across the table conversations?
Director of
Communications Donna Whitten from 12 Stone Church writes, “Social media is the modern-day watering hole.
It's where people gather to talk about their day, show a photo or share a joke,
a news item or a bit of wisdom. People
crave connections these days and while not a replacement for true community,
social media is a great opportunity to create conversations.”
So that would
mean that while communication on a whole couldn’t take place via social media,
we can at least use it to create conversations.
Creating and building
up conversations can help in connecting with people to a certain level. So how
do we create conversations online? Donna suggests two ways:
1) Ask questions.
People love to weigh in,
comment and give their opinion. The responses are a valuable insight into the
people in your sphere of influence. A prompt and conversational response tells
people you care and that you're listening- that makes it personal.
2) Equip people to share.
People love to post videos, songs, quotes, pictures- you name it. You put tools like that in their hands and they are going to share them. These tools help in creating conversations with people.
Honestly, I do not know if real relationships can work online. While connections can happen online, I still believe you would have to go offline to take your connections to a real relationship.
So here’s what I want to ask you:
Would you be willing to switch off your whatsapp for a day? Could you go offline for a few hours without having the urge to go back on?
You could ask: Why should I?
That’s a legit and a very valid question. After writing down the pros of social media, we wouldn’t want to switch it off!
I did it for a day and if you would ask me, would I switch it off again? My answer to that is I would!
Why? Because the first time I did it, life happened.
The day I switched off my whatsapp, I went out with my family to the beach. We played in the water, we built sand castles, we played ball and even flew a kite and had pani puri! I know I wouldn’t want to miss those things no matter what!
Was all of that worth it going offline for a day? Oh yes, absolutely!
