For better or for worse, I believe that social media have impacted our world as much as the telephone or the electric light. In particular the ubiquitous phenomenon of “sharing” our lives online must be affecting human relationships in many ways. What are Your Thoughts? Please Comment… (Notice that I use Comment Luv to link […]
I hope that while we are busy “making” money, we will keep the need for money in perspective relative to other needs. Let’s be happy, healthy, and satisfied! Assuming you want to create both wealth and happiness for yourself and those around you, you have two approaches: wait until you’re wealthy to be happy, or become more happy now and thereby create more wealth.
Online and Offline Relationships — It Goes Both Ways “Online Building Offline Relationships” is the title of a post by George Couros in his blog, “The Principal of Change.” George is an innovative school Principal who writes about fostering effective relationships. I couldn’t agree more with what Principal Couros wrote: If I know anything, whether it […]
Love is a “many splendorous thing.” Love is best shared live and in person. Non-verbal communication enhances the whole experience. However, there are many situations in which lovers are not in the same location. Modern technology has provided many channels of communication to bridge the gaps. One of the most wonderful new video-conferencing tools is Google Hangout , which allows […]
Making friends is one of the most valuable activities in life, whether measured by happiness, helpfulness, or financial benefits. Making friends usually begins with finding compatible people. In a previous post I wrote about How To Find Friends. Social networking websites have made it easy to find new friends online, but winning their loyal friendship is an art.
Interdependent Relationships Relationships have values which are often greater than material possessions. Love, of course, is “the greatest of these” few things which endure. I hope we all remember how precious Love is, per se, aside from any practical fringe benefits. But I also want to point out the motivational power and the synergistic leverage […]
Interpersonal Attraction Attraction has been linked to similarity of attitudes, belief, and interests in university research since the 1960’s. Personally, I invested four years in post-graduate research into interpersonal attraction. The implications for social media are profound, because we open to the public intimate details about our attitudes and interests on our Facebook profiles. […]
Begin with the end in mind. As a leadership consultant I have always asked “WHY” before “WHAT.” Intention helps focus efforts in the direction of desired results. Craig Galati wrote about social media strategy in the Las Vegas Sun: Social media is important, but it must fit into a marketing strategy. Social media is a […]
Authenticity On Social Networks A psychological study revealed that out of 400 adjectives that describe personality characteristics, the #1 most attractive was sincere, and the #400 (most unattractive) was phony. People like authenticity. Philosopher James Allen, in his Essay on the Eight Pillars of Prosperity, wrote, “Attractiveness, like genius, is lost by being coveted, and possessed by […]
“Time is of the essence,” “Time is money,” “Time is life!” Each year we have over half a million minutes — about 50 million in a lifetime, but not all moments are equal. In fact most of the minutes in our lives are wasted! Pareto’s Law, the Law of the Vital Few and the Trivial […]
What kind of relationships do you really have with Facebook Friends and Twitter followers? How does a virtual relationship differ from an offline relationship? We may get some clues from an article Mayhill Fowler wrote in the Hoffington Post, entitled Taking the Me from Social Media, quoted below:
But the heady sensation of connectedness induced by social media whisks the user quickly past contemplation of the sands upon which these Internet relationships are built.
“We may enjoy online relationships using social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, for example, but the difference between these kinds of interactions and interactions with people in the physical world is clearly vast,” according to Alex Lickerman, M.D. In his recent article in Psychology Today, Dr. Lickerman wrote: As long as we expect no […]
“Real relationships” can be online OR offline. When I describe my mission to “turn friends and followers into real relationships,” I do not necessarily mean to move them offline, as in the movie You’ve Got Mail. Online relationships can be very real, as illustrated by the article excerpted below, which (surprisingly) was written decades ago, when “social media” meant primarily AOL chat rooms!
Relationships come in many varieties. All are important. Camelot, the movie or the play, dramatically demonstrates the dominant role that relationships play in life. The drama revolves around conflicts between marital loyalty, Platonic friendship (King Arthur and Sir Lancelot), military alliances (the “Round Table”), sexual desire and romantic love (Lancelot and Queen Guinevere). The dream of the great […]
Online Relationships Love begins with contact, online or offline. I have several personal friends who met strangers online, developed relationships, and have been happily married for a decade or more to persons they met online. One happy couple met playing cards online. Those relationships are worth a thousand other Facebook Friends. The key is that […]
Relationship cultivation is like growing a rose garden. And I did “promise you a rose garden!” The relationship must be nurtured or else it will whither. Note the fact that it is no accident that the strength of a friendship or family relationship may increase or decrease over time. It is very sad when […]
Magnetic Personality Attractive personality characteristics, like charm and charisma, normally radiate naturally from the authentic heart of a person. Although charm and charisma are powerful leadership qualities, attempting to display them deliberately is risky. Appearing phony or self-conscious would be counter-productive for a wannabe leader. Sincerity is just as powerful and attractive as charisma. […]
Non-Verbal Communication 93% / 7% Social Psychologists generally subscribe to the theory that “93% of interpersonal communication is non-verbal, and only 7 % is content.” Geoff Snyder’s leadership blog describes the components well: Almost every facet of our personality is revealed through our appearance, our body language, our gestures, our facials expressions, our overall demeanor, and our posture […]
“People who need people are the luckiest people in the world,” according to Barbara Streisand’s song from Funny Girl. It’s a beautiful song! To hear Barbara sing it, click here (mp3). I say, if you want to get lucky and be in the right place at the right time, be in a lot of […]
