The value of human connection was on my mind today when I was feeling a little down. Lately, I have been feeling disconnected from others. That is a bit abnormal for me. I tend to gravitate towards others and usually I am friendly and outgoing and others reciprocate. This past month it feels as though friends and acquaintances are not really connecting.
The original Stepford Wives (1975 Movie Classic) was actually very believable for me and it did illustrate a feeling I sometimes carry. It feels that people are giving you programed answers and when you look in their eyes they seem vacant. It is though most people I know are too busy or too absorbed to really connect in a meaningful way. I can understand business and being preoccupied. I think it is perfectly acceptable to say, I cannot give you my full attention at this very moment: Let me call you back or visit later. I get that most people have a lot on their plate, however; I am feeling a robot epidemic coming on. This is intensifying.
People connect through social media and that can seem rather superficial at times. There is more and more one way communication. Most companies work from a pyramid structure of communication. The larger they are the worse that communication gets. The people at the top make the decisions and it filters down on a need to know basis. It is one way. The news is one way.
Even where I attend grad school feels very one way at times. Socrates taught be asking questions of his students and creating a learning grid to be filled in depending on the natural curiosity of his pupils. This seems like the idea way to learn. Let's fill each others basket with many perspectives. We all have experience to bring to the table. The CEO who is not interested in the "little people" at the bottom of a corporation is loosing a great deal of valuable input. Having a round table communication with all participants of a company is going to allow for more individual buy in. All employees will be motivated to produce better if they feel their concerns are heard. I took a course called Enlightened Management once. It talks about creating a family like atmosphere at work Employees are not robots and they are going to have issues at times. In a supportive company individual issues can be faced with compassion. This results in keeping employees who are good at their job and this creates better mentoring for the new crop of employees. A cut throat environment is not really productive. People stress out and valuable sharing and cooperation is lost. That is just at work.
We listen to the news when we get home from school or work. That is terrible one way communication. The news is biased and incomplete and even disturbing. We really aren't able to learn much about our environment this way. If local news would offer suggestions on current problems and town hall meetings and other forums, how progressive that would be. As I have mentioned before, our media was bought up and monopolized long ago. I remember when Clear
Channel bought up all the independent radio stations. It was spine chilling. I had a horrible reaction realizing that Clear Channel was going to be one way. I saw that they were going to filter all news and broadcast what they thought beneficial. That seems to be the case.
The potential of Face Book is there. We can interact with each other and communicate concerns. Potentially social media could serve as an important vehicle to reaching out and really talking once again. I went to a party for the Democratic Nomination of Barack. I would not have known about it if my email and other connections were not in place.
I salute the social medias and may more and better spring forth from them (and blogs too)
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