To Tweet or Not to Tweet
Reboot Your Brain
By Jon Bradshaw
I SENSED THAT THE PASSENGER TO MY RIGHT WAS GROWING INCREASINGLY IRRITATED as the British Airways Boeing 777 taxied toward Heathrow Airport’s easterly runway. I opened one eye, slightly annoyed to have been woken from my usual pre-flight doze, to see exactly what the issue was. In his right hand, held high as if a holy relic, was his BlackBerry being poked and prodded from every direction as its owner’s frantic voice boomed across the cabin, “Does anyone know how to turn a BlackBerry off?!”
Now both eyes were open as I watched in fascination as a woman seated several rows behind us was given permission to unbuckle, run to our row and succeeded in turning the device off less than a minute before takeoff, much to the relief of all concerned.
The subsequent flight gave me ample chance to chat to the BlackBerry’s amicable owner, Phil, who shared details of the complicated love/hate relationship he has with the device, somewhat similar, he acknowledged, to the rapport he shared with his now ex-wife, a situation he directly attributes to his BlackBerry use, too. Regarding the incident onboard, he rather sheepishly admitted that since the delivery of the device several weeks ago, he hadn’t once turned it off. He had discovered Facebook and Twitter and with an international social circle, wanted to keep in touch 24/7.
The episode led me to consider the effectiveness and the emotional cost of utilizing the plethora of networking tools now at our disposal and whether social obligation, touched with an element of narcissism, is actually the prime motive behind our desire to stay LinkedIn.
To the astonishment, frustration and ridicule of many of my friends and colleagues, I have yet to embrace the world of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the like. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no technophobe. I’m proud to say that I stopped relying on a trans-Atlantic pigeon to deliver my column to the editor some months ago. It’s just that I’ve yet to be convinced that these new tools are all that time efficient, my limited experience telling me that the time invested in keeping them fully updated offers diminishing marginal returns.
“But old school friends get in touch,” implore my peers. Let me tell you, the idea of hearing from my childhood sweetheart Rosa and re-living the time aged 11 when, in the middle of double science, she showed the whole class the letter I had written informing her of my undying love, is avoidable self torture and far better left as the first entry in the bulging “Disastrous Female Encounters” file of my memory bank.
With Rosa in mind, I was interested to read an article recently about a phenomenon called Facebook Suicide. Reportedly hundreds of people a day actually close down their Facebook accounts as apparently the unanticipated pressure of connecting with old friends becomes too much, the quoted psychologist arguing that it countered the natural social ebb and flow of life that allows people to enter and leave our world almost without us noticing.
A conference speaker I heard last week extolled the virtues of using social networking sites for business development. His estimate that it took roughly three hours of his day to keep his “walls” updated, upload photos and post his tweets astounded me. While he was obviously very proud of the number of Facebook “friends” he had recruited, I noted somewhat ironically that his Twitter followers were far fewer in number than the potential customers he chose not to engage with at the final night gala dinner. He sat at his table, BlackBerry in hand, tweeting to his followers the news that proved pivotal in clinching his next customer—yes, his steak was overcooked. Better connected? More business? I think not.
What about the impact on our relationships with those closest to us? I’m not preaching here, as I’m sure I’m not the only owner who has changed the settings on his handheld to prevent the red light flashing when a message sits unread. Previously, too many evenings with my girlfriend had been interrupted as I obeyed the red light’s hypnotic command to check e-mails only to discover they were usually from a company offering help with my performance in the bedroom rather than the boardroom.
I am, of course, choosing to ignore the undoubted benefits that using these tools can bring, but I do wonder where it will all stop. I know that for some of you my challenge to disconnect occasionally will be met with ridicule, but I ask that you at least consider locating and engaging your own off button every now and again.
As usual I look forward to comments via e-mail, phone or, of course, pigeon. One+EMEA
JON BRADSHAW presents and trains internationally on a variety of subjects in the field of human behavior and performance. He is also director of business development for IMEX, the European Meetings and Events Exhibition and can be can be contacted via www.equinoxmotivation.com.