I’m not doing email, I’m relating with people

I’m not new to digital technology for communication. I’ve been on social media now for at least 15 years. Starting with Facebook in Feb 2006, followed by LinkedIn in 2008, blogging, Twitter and then Instagram. I’ve had a personal email account since about 1994, and I’ve been using email in a work context since about 1992.

Digital technologies (like social media and email) get a bad rep(utation) many times as a waste of time, a distraction, even a relationship challenge.

To be fair – there are practices in using these technologies that can be examined, and found wanting. The same could be said for pen and paper technology. And maybe the scribes who used clay tablets had reasons to complain too.

When I consider that only 150 years ago my ancestors might have been limited to a few books on their shelf, a few years in a school classroom, a few visitors to their town, a few-page newspaper, and a social network with a totality of a couple of hundred people whom they met in their daily lives or corresponded with … then I live in a knowledge rich world fuelled by a diverse range of interesting people spread across the globe.

Author
Helen Palmer, Founder of Self unLimited, has been in many workscape situations that included digital correspondence and social media platforms. She reflects on such things to offer fresh advice to help others navigate peer pressure and set useful intentions and boundaries. She’s a strong advocate for self-care, and getting practical to enable people to express their best selves at work and work effectively.

 

(Amended) Photo by Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash