Radio silence on the old social media. Can you imagine what communication would revert to if we all took a 21-day challenge? We might pick up the phone to dial it. We might conversate with one another more, write real thank you’s, plan outings with each other, have meals without devices, engage in real hobbies and more of all that “real” stuff where people use eye-contact.  Sounds cray-cray right?

That was the experiment I challenged myself to. I must say the first few “pings” on my phone brought a new awareness. An agitation, almost like an itch you Have to scratch. Do I have to look? The temptation to click! And finding the power to resist. Ahhh! Oh the challenge, oh what will people think? Am I being rude? Hard as hell!! I wanted to post another social blast just to pre-cursor the fact that I’m not being a snob, I swear! I’m just experimenting.

With all that obnoxious, anxious, self-talk going on in my mind, I began to reflect a little deeper. I sought to overcome those feelings and become more in the “present”. After all, that’s what I wanted to accomplish. If by going radio silent, not in the military sense of course, but in a figurative way. I yearned for more connectedness with the people I saw every day. The people in the grocery store, at the gym, at my children’s dance and sports, anywhere. I found instead of looking at my phone to reply and “like” to the same folks I always do, I had real live communications. And it was Rewarding. Gratifying. Almost Tony awards rewarding! Maybe on occasion Oscar rewarding. I re-discovered the art of personal communication.  I found the interests of other people that sparked new friendships. I still responded if someone messaged me personally on social media. However, I made no posts, well wait I just lied… I actually accidentally posted a blog unintentionally to Facebook and had to delete it to stay true to this nutty experiment. Besides that blunder, I made true efforts to seek out my next Real conversations. By doing something as small as these 2 things: finding or asking the names of people, and remember something about what they told me and ask about it next time we met. Never had I felt

My mission was simple, doing something as small as these 2 things : 1. finding or asking the names of people and 2. remember something about what they told me and ask about it next time we met. Suddenly, I gained awareness of multitudes of clues around even me by starting small. I also realized how rusty my communication skills had regressed since social media. By noticing these 2-small things, it always unfolds into more tidbits. Goodies of information about others. Never had I felt truer connections. It wasn’t just a false avatar of me, giving a false accreditation in the form of a “like” or a “love” or a “sad face”.  This experiment generated the immediate gratification of seeing a smile, hearing laughter in real time, and looking into someone’s eyes and almost reading other’s thoughts between what their words said.

I didn’t realize how disconnected I had become until I tried this for myself. I needed to mend how I connected with people to feel more connected to myself.

Try the unthinkable and move across the room to communicate for 21-days.

I dare you 😉

thank you for reading ~