As my son, Lachlan, was tapping away in a Facebook chat with his girlfriend, I was thinking about how the internet, social media, emails, smsing, etc has changed the way we communicate, particularly from a trust point of view.
I know myself that, sometimes, it’s easier to write things down, type them, sms or email them than it is to say things directly to someone. My husband, Peter, sms’s me lovely things when I’m travelling that I don’t think he’s ever said to my face! J
There seems to be a freedom for honesty that is available online that we have lost, or maybe never really developed as a skill in our face to face relationships. This has its positives (the lovely sms’s while I’m away), and it’s negatives (the dreadful, rude comments that people feel free to make in blogs, on Facebook and YouTube).
What’s the answer?
- I think we need to develop some better skills to have open and honest conversations with people – with our family members, with our managers and employees, with our friends
- Coupled with that, we need to remember that we are all connected, we share the same spirit, and we are to ‘Love our neighbour as ourselves’ – when we say harmful things to others without considering how they might feel or whether it’s OK for you to share those thoughts then, in that way, we ultimately harm ourselves
I know I’m guilty of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way, thinking of myself and not putting myself in the other person’s shoes. It’s something I think humanity needs to be very mindful of in an era where ‘being honest’ has been made easy to forget that there is another human being on the other side.
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