I WAS recently watching a segment about Facebook on ABC and, as you can imagine, there were a number of differing views and opinions on the position that social media plays in our lives. The discussion point that got me thinking was around the number of online relationships/friends and the time that we have to spend on these people. In this increasingly technological world, are these online relationships fulfilling our human need for companionship, interaction and stimulating discussion? Or does your online community take up so much of your time that you are actually losing contact and understanding with the people that give you meaning and sustainable happiness?
You might ask yourself why this topic hit home with me. I have always been mesmerised by people and relationships and always will be. It’s the reason I became passionate about team work and it’s the reason BeChallenged will continue to help build better working relationships and therefore hopefully a better quality of life for individuals.
For me, without good friends and fun working relationships, there is no one to celebrate with, no one to care for or help and so, there is not much meaning to life. It was only recently a colleague was expressing their concern for potentially neglecting the people that meant the most to them.
Are we all losing touch of real relationships and real meaning? Are we all content with D-grade online relationships and happiness that lasts for five minutes or do we actually crave an A-grade friendship? The opinion being pushed on the ABC segment was that we don’t have time for both, and I tend to agree. I recently signed back up to Facebook after being offline for three years and it’s been great – I spent Saturday night next to my wife chatting to other people.
Don’t get me wrong, the online world is here to stay, but this is the reason we need to be sure that we are being true to ourselves with our time spent on our friends and relationships. Are we better off with four real friends or 400 online friends?
At BeChallenged, we are all about real relationships and genuine conversations. You need to spend time and effort to build relationships and this is no different in the work place.
Take time to understand the people you are working with. Is your time better spent sitting by yourself on social media for 30 minuntes or in a one-on-one conversation with someone? What do humans crave and need to sustain happiness?
Where are you spending your valuable time? Keep a social media diary, I dare you!
