Saturday, July 16, 2011

Social Networking... say what?

I watched a car commercial today where the girl mentions that she signed her parents up for Facebook and that they only have 19 friends and that she has over 600. It cuts to scenes of her parents engaging in activities in the outdoors and having a blast. Keeping in mind that she believes she has the better social status because of all her "friends". 

It is a reality in the modern age that we interact more often with our friends and family members via text, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media than face-to-face contact. This also means we have more sterile and misunderstood relationships. I have had more than one interaction online where I was misunderstanding or was misunderstood by someone. In between pics of the kids and our latest vacations, we are finding ourselves posting our opinions in an environment where the distillation of these opinions happens only after we have made a fool of ourselves. If I offend anyone, it is purely coincidence and I apologize. If you have hurt me, you are forgiven!

This new way of interacting also includes how we market ourselves in the business world. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Craigslist are important to the success of my business. People interact with us via these sites and I get many customers each week that mention they are stopping in because of an ad I placed on Craigslist. There is a satisfaction to know you are reaching people, but also a sadness that I have no budget for splashy colorful print advertising. I would love to open a magazine and see a 1/4 page full color spread of my sweet little store!!

Sadly, the time may come when our children and grandchildren will not know of a typewriter, or even better a hand written note as anything more than an exhibit in a museum. I hope and pray that a resurgence occurs where old-fashioned communication becomes the norm. I would hate for us all to become like the folks in the movie "Wall-E" that have no personal contact with their friends. 

I do realize the irony of posting these thoughts on my blog, where I am not sure if my personal feelings are even being absorbed by anyone other than myself. If I could write a note to each person that I knew was reading this, I would. 

Have a delightful rest of your weekend! 


xo
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