Have We Lost The Art of Conversation?
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Relationships
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This morning I was involved in a very interesting Twitter conversation with some other bloggers, which all started with Aly from Bug, Bird and Bee asking what the #KloutMassacre was all about. It seems that some high-scoring Klouters (?) have had their scores slashed and it got us talking about how many of them are prolific link spammers on social media and don't actually engage much with their followers. Along came Ryan from Dad Creek Without a Paddle and Adrian from Dad Without a Map into the conversation and we spent a lovely half an hour or so bemoaning the lack of social engagement on what is, now ironically, called social media.
The header picture is of myself, Toby, Dad, my brother and Phil watched Spurs *ahem* lose to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup Final. To be fair, we are a social family and we do chat but this photo represents the thought that maybe people just don't converse as much these days. My Twitter and Facebook feeds are absolutely jam-packed full of links and whilst obviously being bloggers, we need to get our posts seen, it seems that scheduling has replaced spontaneous interaction and link spamming is now the order of the day. I post links to my latest articles on Twitter and Facebook, of course I do because I am a blogger and if people don't know that I've written something new then they won't read it. Not a complicated process really. However, I also talk to people, join in with Twitter chats such as #blogtacular and #mblogchat whenever I can and if I see an interesting tweet then I reply to it. Yes, I engage and that is what we have decided is missing. Social media is becoming anti-social and we don't like it!
What about in real life, away from cyber-space, do we still converse? I'm a self-confessed phone addict and I know that I have annoyed my husband on several occasions by merrily tweeting away during a film but we do talk. We go on date nights and I will only have my phone on me in case my Mum, who generally looks after Toby, needs to contact me. We go for walks as a family and leave our phones behind, we have days out, we play with Toby, we go out with friends - albeit not as often as we used to - but the art of conversation is there. On the flip side, I can't begin to count the amount of times I see groups or couples supposedly out together for lunch or a drink and every single one of them is on their phone with barely a word being passed between them the entire time. Maybe they're texting each other, I don't know.
Back to the anti-social nature of social media though, I hate seeing link after link after link and will very often skim right past them on my feed, surely then that's counterproductive for the person posting said links? I'm far more likely to click a link if it's amongst general chit chat and I feel that I know the person on some level. We all want to get our blog posts read but if I end up chatting with someone I will, without fail, go and check out their blog. They've not spammed me with links, they've simply chatted to me and shown themselves as a human instead of a scheduled tweet robot and so I feel a connection to them and therefore their blog. So I will read and I won't just read their latest post but if I like their blog I'll continue to read, add them on BlogLovin', read their new posts as I see them.
Come on people, let's bring back the art of conversation! Less scheduling, more engagement, less tweeting at the dinner table and more asking how your loved ones' days have been. Get chatting folks, bring social etiquette back into social media and society as a whole. I'm not perfect, I do spend too much family and friends time on Twitter, I do sometimes hit 'favourite' instead of taking the time to reply, but I also chat and that's what we need more of!
Have you been frustrated by the decline in conversation? Are you going to join in with the conversation revolution (#BringBackConversation anyone?) Let me know in the comments below or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter, I'm Budding Smiles on both.
The header picture is of myself, Toby, Dad, my brother and Phil watched Spurs *ahem* lose to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup Final. To be fair, we are a social family and we do chat but this photo represents the thought that maybe people just don't converse as much these days. My Twitter and Facebook feeds are absolutely jam-packed full of links and whilst obviously being bloggers, we need to get our posts seen, it seems that scheduling has replaced spontaneous interaction and link spamming is now the order of the day. I post links to my latest articles on Twitter and Facebook, of course I do because I am a blogger and if people don't know that I've written something new then they won't read it. Not a complicated process really. However, I also talk to people, join in with Twitter chats such as #blogtacular and #mblogchat whenever I can and if I see an interesting tweet then I reply to it. Yes, I engage and that is what we have decided is missing. Social media is becoming anti-social and we don't like it!
What about in real life, away from cyber-space, do we still converse? I'm a self-confessed phone addict and I know that I have annoyed my husband on several occasions by merrily tweeting away during a film but we do talk. We go on date nights and I will only have my phone on me in case my Mum, who generally looks after Toby, needs to contact me. We go for walks as a family and leave our phones behind, we have days out, we play with Toby, we go out with friends - albeit not as often as we used to - but the art of conversation is there. On the flip side, I can't begin to count the amount of times I see groups or couples supposedly out together for lunch or a drink and every single one of them is on their phone with barely a word being passed between them the entire time. Maybe they're texting each other, I don't know.
Back to the anti-social nature of social media though, I hate seeing link after link after link and will very often skim right past them on my feed, surely then that's counterproductive for the person posting said links? I'm far more likely to click a link if it's amongst general chit chat and I feel that I know the person on some level. We all want to get our blog posts read but if I end up chatting with someone I will, without fail, go and check out their blog. They've not spammed me with links, they've simply chatted to me and shown themselves as a human instead of a scheduled tweet robot and so I feel a connection to them and therefore their blog. So I will read and I won't just read their latest post but if I like their blog I'll continue to read, add them on BlogLovin', read their new posts as I see them.
Come on people, let's bring back the art of conversation! Less scheduling, more engagement, less tweeting at the dinner table and more asking how your loved ones' days have been. Get chatting folks, bring social etiquette back into social media and society as a whole. I'm not perfect, I do spend too much family and friends time on Twitter, I do sometimes hit 'favourite' instead of taking the time to reply, but I also chat and that's what we need more of!
Have you been frustrated by the decline in conversation? Are you going to join in with the conversation revolution (#BringBackConversation anyone?) Let me know in the comments below or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter, I'm Budding Smiles on both.
