Wednesday, July 1, 2009

What's your level of engagement in online communications


A recent blog posting here http://lateralaction.com/articles/engagement-conversations/
has struck a chord with me.



Yesterday I was having a conversation with a colleague about using Twitter. We both agreed that Twitter was kind of useless within our experiences. However, we cannot ignore all the accolades this social networking tool has received.

Then this morning I found the Lateral Action blog posting categorizing the levels of online engagement. The writer makes a good point, which intrigues me.

A couple questions come to mind then
- What is my level of online engagement?
- How does my level of online engagement interrelate with my career and personal life?
- Are people expected to maintain a certain level of engagement?
- Do particular social circles force a person to maintain a particular level of engagement?
- What if someone does not want to be any level of engagement? Does this mean they miss opportunities?

My big issue with social networking has stemmed from the fact that I feel that most online engagement tends to be "mindless chatter" and "inconsequential topics". However, when I feel that I am engaging at a higher level, most of the time it is ignored. This may stem from the fact that my social network primarily engages online communicates as a source of entertainment, and not serious discussion.

Communication is an art that balances between the serious and 'mindless chatter' ultimately making a connection with another person. Therefore, both sides of this spectrum have the potential to meet somewhere in the middle.

Also, when does saying what you are doing, and just doing it become one of the same. This means if I say I am going to do all these wonderful things and Tweet them constantly, when am I actually doing those things? Its sort of a zen parable, if I think about what I am doing as opposed to doing it, am I really doing something?

I want my level of engagement to be two sided, but I don't want to lose the silly spontaneity either. As online communicates tools become more prolific, we all need to prepare ourselves for this balance.

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