In 2008 I spoke at a small business conference and during the event for the first time I started tweeting takeaways from the sessions I attended. The attendees, many of who had no idea what Twitter was, were floored. They couldn’t believe that there was a conversation happening inside the session they were attending, yet there was an online conversation happening about that same session. They were hooked on Twitter, and I was hooked on live-tweeting conferences. I gained dozens of followers an hour. I looked forward to going to events just to live-tweet the sessions, cause I knew that if the session had a big name speaker, I could possibly gain 100 followers in an hour’s time. Just from tweeting key takeaways to people sitting at home on their coach.
But after attending a few events I began to realize that while I was expanding my Twitter network, I wasn’t expanding my learning because I wasn’t paying attention during the session. I told myself that my live-tweeting was a sort of digital note-taking, but the fact was, I wasn’t ‘present’ in that room and involved in the learning that was happening there. I was on Twitter.
In 2009 I attended SXSW and one of the sessions I couldn’t wait to attend was Kathy Sierra’s talk. As the talk was getting ready to start, I realized that I had to make a choice between live-tweeting the session, and actually paying attention. I knew that Kathy’s talk would be wonderful, but would demand my attention.
So I turned off my laptop, and pulled out my notebook. I took about 10 pages of notes and it was one of the most informative sessions I’ve ever attended at any event. From that point on, I stopped live-tweeting events and decided that it was more important to be present.
It seems that for many of social media’s heavy users, documenting the moment is more important than living the moment. Facebook and Twitter has created a culture of narcissism where creating content trumps creating memories. The allure of Likes and Favs is too great for many of us, and I’m just as guilty as anyone. Last year I was at an Alabama football game and Bama was about to score and I had my camera out trying to take a picture as they did, and I suddenly realized that I might get a picture of a touchdown, but in the process I will miss seeing it happen.
It’s important to document our experiences, but not if they get in the way of us having those experiences. It’s a fine line to walk between creating content and living life. How do you walk that line? BTW VentureBeat has a fascinating study on this topic.
Pic via Flickr user Andrew Vargas
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Love this, Mack! I have a similar experience during every #PRprochat, although the reason is slightly different. It moves so dang fast and I’m so busy moderating that I have to GO BACK to the transcript and read it, just to see all the great things I missed! We are all expected to juggle too many balls and, sometimes, we simply don’t realize what we’ve dropped until it’s too dang late.
During the last year, I’ve made a priority of turning off the phone or at least flipping it face down on my desk when I need to concentrate. Live in the moment more, and reduce the smartphone addiction!!!
Hi Carrie! I have the same problem with #Blogchat, I really only have time to deal with the replies I get, I scan the main feed as I can, but I miss a LOT!
The need to share with others can cause us to miss out ourselves, to a degree.
I think this is finally starting to float to the surface for many of us. http://rockthestatusquo.com/snack-smartphone-addiction/
What I have found is that if I am live tweeting during an event my audience loves it. For me though, I have to go back and LOOK at my tweets – just like I would if I had taken notes with pen and paper or tablet and stylus. That is the difference for me – not just live tweeting my notes, but going back and looking at them, reading them, thinking about them, and acting on them.
This post really hits home with me Mack. I have found myself missing out on lots of great moments at both industry and sporting events and I always end up disappointed in myself for doing, but then turn around and do it the next time. My new approach is to take notes and then share them after the event is over and it’s worked very nicely for me. I’m able to enjoy the presentation or moments of the event and still share later with my connections. If there is something that I feel like I have to share at that minute, then I share it, but I make sure that the moment isn’t monopolized by my smartphone or MacBook. Thanks for this great post.
Hi Kris, I think a lot of us that create content have these same concerns. I also think there’s a way to strike a balance between living the moment and documenting the moment. Sounds like your approach is a good start, share selectively and don’t let the sharing force you to miss out on experiences.
Mack,
This really strikes a cord. Even this older generation can be quickly sucked in. It becomes a fine, fine line to walk, indeed. Most people seem to deal with it as “all or nothing” – abandoning all hope of finding the middle balance.
Now that we mention it – I actually think it takes a great deal of self-awareness to find the middle point.
Perhaps that’s the greater challenge?
Great post. Perfectly on target.
-Leslie Anneliese
Thank you Leslie. I think everyone has their own idea of what balance means to them. The most important thing is to strive to reach one.
Such an important topic. I think about this often and it seems like people don’t really stop to question this phenomenon. We need to stop digitizing our memories!
Last month, I went to IBM Interconnect in Las Vegas and was invited to attend as an influencer with the expectation that we would share content with our audiences. on the last night of the event, Aerosmith played an incredible concert and everyone had their phones up (some people even had big tablets up) filming. Steven Tyler stopped during a song and said something like “all I see if a bunch of cameras. Is anyone even watching this anymore?” Clearly this discussion needs to be had because as with anything in life…moderation! It’s great to take a couple pics but then out it away and be present! Life is meant to be lived, not just streamed to your social feed.