Last week, I was listening to sports radio one morning as the guys were talking about the potential upcoming lockout in the NFL. At one point, the discussion turned towards the idea that the only way the players are going to be able to win out against the owners is if the players, all of the players, actually stick together – which of course probably won’t happen because the players aren’t all on the same page. This would not have been as big of a deal 10 years ago, but today in the world of status updates and tweets players are going to quickly show each other, the world and most importantly- the owners – that they aren’t all in agreement and the owners should easily win this thing. All of this to get to the most interesting thing that that the radio show host said that morning when he was talking about Twitter (and I paraphrase) – “We live in a world where you can tell everyone exactly what you’re thinking at every moment about everything. The problem is people don’t think before they hit send.”
This isn’t really a new problem; this whole idea of people not thinking before they hit send. In the past, there was no ‘send’ button to hit, but it was all about spewing things off at the mouth. At least back then when we would let our mouth speak before our brain kicked in, it would only hit a few people (which is no better, but illustrates the point.) Now, though, in 2011, it’s easier to share with 10’s of 100’s of 1000’s of people with the simple click of a button.
Lately, I have been paying much more attention to what I tweet as well as what others post and tweet. It’s fascinating how much you can learn about a person (or yourself), by just checking out their one sentence updates or tweets. More than anything, you can begin to determine what a person’s life is about, what consumes their thoughts and their time, what they are for and even more often, what they are against.
Both Twitter and Facebook give people an opportunity to write a bio. I enjoy the bio section, especially on Twitter as it gives you a chance to communicate who you are and what you’re about in a very short snippet. It’s interesting though how my bio really doesn’t speak nearly as much about me as my updates do.
I took a look back through my last 25 tweets, just to see what I am all about or at least what my tweets say I'm all about. Here’s what I found:
Tweets about:
Friends I love: 3
Running: 5
My family: 3
Coffee: 1
Writing: 10
This isn’t really a new problem; this whole idea of people not thinking before they hit send. In the past, there was no ‘send’ button to hit, but it was all about spewing things off at the mouth. At least back then when we would let our mouth speak before our brain kicked in, it would only hit a few people (which is no better, but illustrates the point.) Now, though, in 2011, it’s easier to share with 10’s of 100’s of 1000’s of people with the simple click of a button.
Lately, I have been paying much more attention to what I tweet as well as what others post and tweet. It’s fascinating how much you can learn about a person (or yourself), by just checking out their one sentence updates or tweets. More than anything, you can begin to determine what a person’s life is about, what consumes their thoughts and their time, what they are for and even more often, what they are against.
Both Twitter and Facebook give people an opportunity to write a bio. I enjoy the bio section, especially on Twitter as it gives you a chance to communicate who you are and what you’re about in a very short snippet. It’s interesting though how my bio really doesn’t speak nearly as much about me as my updates do.
I took a look back through my last 25 tweets, just to see what I am all about or at least what my tweets say I'm all about. Here’s what I found:
Tweets about:
Friends I love: 3
Running: 5
My family: 3
Coffee: 1
Writing: 10
Random thoughts: 2
Football: 1
I'm actaully okay with these numbers. (I was very curious to see what I was going to find in the archives). It’s my desire that people would know me for what I’m for, not for what I’m against; for what I love, not for what I hate. That people would know me for who I really am and who I am becoming; not for some phony me.
Just like in my speech, I think the best way for me to continue growing in these areas is to actually think before I hit 'send'.
So, what are your thoughts? What do your tweets (or fb updates) say about you and your life? Do people know you for what you are for or for what you're against? Do they convey the real you? Do you think before you hit send?
