by Elliott Chaffer, Executive Creative Director
To be clear: I am not talking about the false value that people and brands place on the amount of shares they get or “friends” they have on social media. Nor am I talking about file sharing, timeshares, ride shares, re-shares, shareholders or company shares. And frankly, I couldn’t care less about selfies, hashtags, cat pics, or pictures of what you ate last night. Share a real meal with someone instead and find out something new.
What I am talking about is authentic face-to-face, human sharing that creates real social connections. Because when we tell our stories authentically, we achieve real, lasting human relationships and open ourselves up to new worlds of possibilities and opportunities.
If sharing is caring, how come no one really cares what you share on social media? Seriously. We’re always on to the next distraction seconds after liking something. But back on Planet Earth, why do we find it so hard to make eye contact in the elevator, and instead pull out our phones and look at Instagram? How deadly is the silence on a subway train during the morning commute? People who are “not us” are just people like us, so who or what are we so afraid of?
Think about the homeless people who get on the train and share their vulnerability with us, their “story.” What do we do? We instantly pull out our phones and look at Instagram. But when the “WHAT TIME IS IT? SHOWTIME!” guys come on, then maybe we snap a picture and share it on Instagram. And hashtag it.