Talk to me !
One of my boxing instructors follows the ‘caveman diet’. I remember the conversation with him as he explained that he would eat organic meat, vegetables, nuts and fruit. Wheat was apparently cultivated on a large scale to feed the human population as cities grew. He outlined that the human body was designed to process certain things and that the overwhelming use of additives and man-made food substances put pressure on our bodily systems and led to obesity etc. A pretty bleak picture, he is however a finely tuned and incredibly happy guy.
I love the simplicity of what he was suggesting, the wholesome nature of his approach. Forgive me for the mental leap that I’m about to make, bear with me it will all become clear!
I started thinking about Jamie and his diet because of one day feeling overwhelmed by the ‘additives’ of linked-in ,Twitter,Instagram,snapchat and Facebook. In my early years a conversation was something that you had face to face, and if that wasn’t possible it was a phone at home or a red phone box and a pocket full of 10p’s. Mobile phones and then the internet opened up a world of opportunity and possibility, but are we in danger of becoming socially obese due to the overwhelming deluge of information, opinions, thoughts, blogs and tweets? Twitter seems to me the communication equivalent of a McDonald’s hamburger. It’s quick and easy but leaves you feeling empty, a little bit guilty and unable to undo it.
People are making a living as social media experts, how far will it go? Are we creating so many ‘additives’ that part of me is hankering after that simple ‘caveman’ approach? My daughter and her friends text each other….when they are in the same room. How far can it possibly go? Will we reach the point where people hanker for simplicity or have we gone past the point of no return? What impact is the explosion of social media having on the youth of today? It’s all happening so quickly we don’t have a test group to observe, we don’t know how it might change behaviours?
It is easy to spot the effect that it has on some people who feel the need to tell you what they had for breakfast, what they are wearing and how busy the train was into work. Face to face this might be small talk, online it often appears in isolation as ‘the point’.
I am very fortunate in my role to work face to face with some amazing people who have be successful as a result of their ability to interact and communicate at a high level, without a Tweet in sight.
The irony of the fact that I’m writing this piece, and that it will appear somewhere on the web is not lost on me. My only defence is that I’m writing this as a result of a conversation with my wife, face to face over a nice cup of tea. No sugar of course!