Reframing is about changing the game. It’s about how we describe a conflict. There is no shortage of buzz about a personal conflict many of us wrestle with, our struggle to maintain attention, focus, in a world of digital busyness, the world of social media.
Social media is a paradox. On the one hand, it gives us a whole bunch of wonderful ways to connect with others. On the other hand, exuberant acceptance and use of social media can be at the expense of deeper, richer relationships, and our internal life.
Just enough
On Twitter this week, courtesy of William Powers ( @hamletsbb and author of Hamlet’s Blackberry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age), I came across an artfully crafted video/advertisement, Disconnect to Connect, created for a Thai mobile phone company. I say artfully because the potential of art is to elicit a deep emotional response (often felt differently, depending on the viewer), and this video/ad does that, brilliantly. Here it is: (can’t see it? click here)
Apparently, the message at the end of the clip is use the phone just enough. Ok. I don’t know the Thai language. I’ll assume its so. Regardless, I like that phrase, just enough.
It’s balance that matters. Powers describes digital balance as a philosophy that takes into account the human need to connect outward, to answer the call of the crowd, as well as the opposite need for time and space apart.
As each of us invests our own time using social media, we gain experience with it, we observe how it impacts us. Through sweat equity, and reflection, we locate our own, personal, balance point, for living with social media. And this balance point is just enough. (here’s a few books I recommend, and summarize, to help you find your Just Enough)
There is power in a good reframe. Mediators understand the power of a reframe. A good reframe helps us move from a problem focus to a goal focus. When we arrive at our personal just enough, we have arrived at our reframe, our response to the paradox of social media.
What’s your reframing of the paradox of social media?
[Leave a comment about this post. Subscribe to the feed to get regular updates.]
Love it! Thanks.
Thanks Daniela.
Hey Ben,
Great post, last week actually when we had that Blackberry outage for a few days it made me think about how often we are on our phones, twitter, facebook, email, etc. and how nice it was to be without one for a day or two. After that day it is definitely something that I am working on spending less time on!
Jason, … I’m in the same boat… working on getting away from it all, now and then. It’s a challenge… writing about it is one way for me to get to understand that challenge a bit better. Yet, we’re social animals, too… and the digital world is a pretty darn good place to connect and socialize, as we both know. 🙂