Goodbye Twitter
Call me a Luddite or worse, but I finally pulled the plug on Twitter last week. There were two reasons: according to Chris Barth's blog, "…the service has come under fire from a lot of different angles - it promotes overexposure, it doesn't make any money, and it has limited policing making it difficult to distinguish between DarthVader and iamdarthvader. Jon Stewart called it a gimmick, Doonesbury author Gary Trudeau mocked the need to maintain constant Twitter relevance, and NPR lamented the loss of editing. For a service so tiny, it has certainly caused a big commotion."
But there is a much more important second reason: After being convinced that I was not really part of the human race, let alone current, if I did not have a Twitter account, I finally signed up. As a result, I endured endless messages (tweets) about what people were cooking for dinner, the dress they had chosen to wear that day, the lyric of a song they liked and what was causing their indigestion: yes; Eventually, I OD'd on personal trivia. Perhaps this is a metaphor for our times. Twitter has a real value in communicating vital information, such as Barak Obama's campaign updates to his supporters during the US election last year. But if we only use social networking technologies for sharing our own personal trivia, or to promote ourselves, we may miss the opportunity of using our time and technology to change the world and make it better.
We are emerging from a period of extreme self-absorption, narcissism and self indulgence - the source of much of our economic pain today. Thankfully, there is a growing maturity afoot among people and organizations, that is nudging us into be more concerned about others than ourselves, to serve others before self, and even to serve self by serving others first. If we want to become more inspired, restore our focus, re-establish a secure footing for our economy and make the world greener and safer, it will be done most effectively through service to others, empathy for their feelings and needs and listening more than talking.
I called the CEO of one of our hospital clients the other day and he was telling me how awful business was. "Why?" I asked? He explained that this had been a mild winter for flu and so the normal influx of sick elderly patients had not materialized, and this had wreaked havoc with his revenues. Is this how health care is supposed to work? Instead of working the system to meet our needs, aren't we supposed to be running it for the benefit of others?
As it goes for people, so it goes for organizations and countries. Those who have been Twittering (if I may use that term to describe our incessant preoccupation with ourselves more than others) are in disarray today. Putting self first has caused a crisis for banks, airlines, wireless and energy companies and an army of derivative experts who are now trying to sort out their future. We - that is you and me - and our organizations, communities and countries will become more inspiring as soon as we shift more of our energy and technology into serving the needs of others - in a way that serves the needs of the world.
But there is a much more important second reason: After being convinced that I was not really part of the human race, let alone current, if I did not have a Twitter account, I finally signed up. As a result, I endured endless messages (tweets) about what people were cooking for dinner, the dress they had chosen to wear that day, the lyric of a song they liked and what was causing their indigestion: yes; Eventually, I OD'd on personal trivia. Perhaps this is a metaphor for our times. Twitter has a real value in communicating vital information, such as Barak Obama's campaign updates to his supporters during the US election last year. But if we only use social networking technologies for sharing our own personal trivia, or to promote ourselves, we may miss the opportunity of using our time and technology to change the world and make it better.
We are emerging from a period of extreme self-absorption, narcissism and self indulgence - the source of much of our economic pain today. Thankfully, there is a growing maturity afoot among people and organizations, that is nudging us into be more concerned about others than ourselves, to serve others before self, and even to serve self by serving others first. If we want to become more inspired, restore our focus, re-establish a secure footing for our economy and make the world greener and safer, it will be done most effectively through service to others, empathy for their feelings and needs and listening more than talking.
I called the CEO of one of our hospital clients the other day and he was telling me how awful business was. "Why?" I asked? He explained that this had been a mild winter for flu and so the normal influx of sick elderly patients had not materialized, and this had wreaked havoc with his revenues. Is this how health care is supposed to work? Instead of working the system to meet our needs, aren't we supposed to be running it for the benefit of others?
As it goes for people, so it goes for organizations and countries. Those who have been Twittering (if I may use that term to describe our incessant preoccupation with ourselves more than others) are in disarray today. Putting self first has caused a crisis for banks, airlines, wireless and energy companies and an army of derivative experts who are now trying to sort out their future. We - that is you and me - and our organizations, communities and countries will become more inspiring as soon as we shift more of our energy and technology into serving the needs of others - in a way that serves the needs of the world.
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