Disconnecting for the Summer
Do you ever wonder how much time you spend on social media or attached to a mobile device in your typical day? Have you ever been out to dinner with the family and looked around just to observe how many people were either on a telephone call or flipping through their phone while they sit waiting for their food to arrive? Today, I want to share with you my own observations and self-realizations about how I have come to understand that it is necessary to step back, unplug and unwind.
I, like millions of others, have a Facebook account. Since I live away from most of my friends and family I am on Facebook daily in order to stay connected. It is a convenient way to keep up to date with what is going on in everyone’s lives, to make announcements of achievements and celebrations and to stay involved when life just doesn’t allow the time for a face to face visit or even a telephone call. The same can be said for text messaging. However, while there are a lot of benefits to having a social media account and mobile devices that you can access nearly everything you would ever need from, there are also some significant drawbacks to today’s technology.
It is very easy to misconstrue or misunderstand a text message or any kind of electronic message. Since it is not face-to-face communication or even a telephone call, there is no way to get a sense of the tone or emotion of the message being delivered. This makes it very easy to misunderstand what the individual is trying to communicate. When speaking with someone on the phone you can hear the tone in their voice which gives you an understanding if someone is upset, frustrated, happy, etc. This can also be said in regard to a face to face conversation. Body language and facial expressions also have a lot to do with communication and how the individuals interpret the true message of the conversation at hand.
I also cannot help but feel that social media and texting can sometimes be a major distraction. Of course, we already know this due to the laws against texting and driving. However, driving aside, I have experienced this distraction first hand. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in the middle of a conversation with someone and a text message or a Facebook message comes in and I feel compelled to check and answer that message. When that happens and I act on that impulse to check the message, it is disrespectful to the person I am speaking with. The same goes for thumbing through Facebook. If you are going through your news feed or chatting with a friend, it is impossible to focus or concentrate on anything else that may be going on around you at any given moment.
While today’s technology has created more convenient and immediate ways to communicate it takes the personalization out of the communication and sometimes can be more distracting than helpful. We live in a very fast paced world. In most family households, both parents work full-time. On top of your full-time job, you may have children that are involved in activities that also require a great deal of time away from home and traveling. Being distracted by an electronic device can take away from time spent with family members. I feel it is important to step back, self-evaluate and put things into perspective.
For me, personally, it is almost summer and my little girl will soon be out of school. I work full time and my husband and I are first year business owners. Life is clearly busy for my family. As I sit back and think about ways I personally can make my life a little less stressful and chaotic, unplugging from social media and relying less on my electronic devices to solely communicate with people is just what the doctor ordered.
