Have you ever considered that social networks have both pluses and minuses? We are able to connect with folks we wouldn’t typically interact with. Yet, with those whom we are closest, we often resort to texting, calling, Facebooking, or tweeting, instead of face-to-face interaction. I know that I am guilty of this. The advantages of social media are that it is easily accessible, easy to understand (well, for most of us), convenient, and user-friendly. However, I often find myself getting caught in the undertow of the online world, where the line between cyber and human can become blurred.
Everything is becoming robotic these days. I cannot remember the last time I called a company, organization, store, or corporation and the phone was directly answered by a person. Nothing frustrates me more. Maybe it started for the purpose of convenience, but now it just seems overtly cold. I want to know that there is a human voice on the other end of the line.
I recently read the article, “Flaws and All: Being Human is In” and it struck me that people want authenticity. Our followers want us to be us. They want to know that we can be fallible and vulnerable, just like them. These thoughts were quickly confirmed when I watched Mari Smith and Guy Kawasaki’s webinar “The 7 Hottest Social Media Business Trends,” and listed “the human connection” as their second trend. Perhaps, human connection, real human connection, has been lost somewhere in the cyber-waves, but this only makes it that much more important.
I realize that these changes will manifest themselves differently for everyone. Personally, I have found that one way to be human is to not be so “picture-perfect,” that it’s OK to stumble and admit mistakes. Hopefully, I am not the only one. I challenge you to see if you are authentic, real, and human with your online/social media world. The question is: are you OK being human (being yourself)? Furthermore, what does that look like for you?