Too much Social not much living

There’s angst that rises from within, a silent cry. We reach out to our own identities in a busy, loud world that forces us to have, to own, to go, to do, force a smile, fake happiness. It wants our constant unswerving attention; it wants to master us, keeping us distracted, discouraging us from stopping, thinking, reflecting and discovering out who we are. That can only be found reaching within.

We exchange peace and solitude for constant limelight, the social media spotlight. That is killing us; our species is living a severe existential crisis. For most, that angst is kept silence within while striving to ‘get by with a smile.’

When we forget the simple we neglect the essential; we become blind to what is truly beautiful in this world.

Too much social yet not much living. Too much attention-grabbing effort very little delivering value affecting the lives of people in a meaningful way. The numbers battle, we all want a piece of the action, a dive in the money stack, a ride in the Lamborghini, a nightstand with the blonde of the hunk with six-pack with a bright smile.

Social Media Threat — Henry David Thoreau

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus have written an amazing book on slowing down and reducing your living so you can live a more fulfilled life – Minimalism: Essential Essays. The essence is to look inside of you and ask the question how much do I really need to be happy?

“Happiness, as far as we are concerned, is achieved through living a meaningful life, a life that is filled with passion and freedom, a life in which we can grow as individuals and contribute to other people in meaningful ways. Growth and contribution: those are the bedrocks of happiness. Not stuff. This may not sound sexy or marketable or sellable, but it’s the cold truth. Humans are happy if we are growing as individuals and if we are contributing beyond ourselves. Without growth, and without a deliberate effort to help others, we are just slaves to cultural expectations, ensnared by the trappings of money and power and status and perceived success.”
― Joshua Fields Millburn, Minimalism: Essential Essays

In Walden, transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau encourages us to pursuit nobility in living a simple life surrounded by nature. He is on a journey towards natures and his own nature. In 2015, I decided to start this journey, the one I’m still on and have not to regretted an inch. When you stop living under the pressure of others, society, family and friends you can finally stop and breathe.

Fact is we have never had so much ‘social’ online time and never felt so much isolated and lonely. We have traded living for existing. What should we do then?

STOP – TURN AROUND – TAKE A BREATH – SMILE INSIDE – BE THANKFUL – JUST BE

In Thoreau’s case, The Minimalists guys and even myself we discovered that going back to nature as well as going back to one’s nature was the key to leave a life of social conformity and embrace a life of true self-reliance and self-actualisation.

What is it for you?

5 Steps to Becoming a Change Agent Marketer

*adapted from Seth Godin’s This is Marketing

“Marketing is the generous act of helping others to become who they seek to become. It involves creating honest stories—stories that resonate and spread.”

Seth Godin, This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Let me just get another ‘like’ before I put the mobile down….

If you have ever considered doing it or have indeed consummated this innocent act though you might never admit to it; (as I have for my own embarrassment and shame) then you might want to rethink how you are using your mobile device, or even, you whole online behaviour.

It is widely known as a fact, a given even amongst the most fierce advocate of digital technologies: Social media and social technologies are highly addictive!

Even Steve Jobs did not allow his children to play with an iPad so what else is our there to be said…. Have the great industry champions been luring us into using their cutting edge gadgetry devices, apps and social platforms in order to get us all hooked up? The great stoic philosopher Seneca once said:

“Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Why those ‘great tech influencers’ at the top is pushing down all these new flashy products to us mere mortals if they deny their own the pleasures of using it..

Through the development of science and technology all the advancement we have today in society came to exist. Without it, we would have never made it to the moon for example (if you believe they put the man on the moon, but that’s an argument for another day). Since our early stages of development as sentient intelligent species on this planet we have attempted to leverage the elements of nature in our favour to give us food, shelter, comfort and a sense of belonging.

In the same way digital technology have been handed down to from the techie gods as an amazing gift and tools to mankind, cultures and societies around the world bringing humans ever closer together. But that providing it does not enslave us into a box of uniformity conditioning herding us to do and become what ever they want us to be.

An article on Quartz this week mentioned a worrisome number of how many times a day mobile users are touching their phones: an alarming 2617 times and that including tapping, typing, swiping and clicking.

The article also reveals what Justin Rosenstein, who created Facebook ‘likes’ button, call them: “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure”.

Another leading whistle blower within the digital industry is former Google employee Tristan Harris who affirms that “all of us are jacked into this system” in a interview for The Guardian. He added “…All our minds can be hijacked. Our choices are not as free as we think they are.”

So, if that is true, are digital technologies taking away our voices? or veiling it under streams of fake news, algorithm manipulation that can start false public outcries, fake social accounts etc.?

What are you thoughts?

“I would rather be without a state than without a voice.” Edward Snowden