My 2 years without Facebook, while I established relations that matter around the globe in times of social media madness and selfie banality
Because I have quitted my Facebook account since about 2 years and my Instagram since 6 months, so I think it's time for an international update for all who are not on LinkedIn about my latest actions and also about the way I understand social media.
The older you get, more the quality of something is important than the quantity I have learned over the last years and for this, you don't need Facebook or Instagram postings for a showing of. I think it's an unwritten law in global executive communities that matter not to post every meeting or to make selfies with celebrities you are in contact with and for the last 2 years this is the new strategy I will tell you about in this article. Maybe it's also interesting for you to be different and apart from the crowd of sheep / lemmings.
I think we live now in times where people think you have no life, no business and no friends, if you are not active in social media. Companies do not make business, teams are not teams and business people are not working hard enough or are not internationally connected if they do not show the proof with a selfie, right?
Traveling and posting selfies does not make you a global business person that matter, it just shows that you never traveled before.
Traveling and posting selfies does not make you a global business person that matter, it just shows that you never traveled before.
Global business and relations existed all before social media since centuries, if you think of Marco Polo, the Fugger or Business Man in the 1950ties, 60ties, 70ties, 80ties, 90ties...etc, p., but now with the social media postings on Facebook and Instagram, it seems that this is the only proof, that legitimates you as a global business person, posting your selfie from airports, conferences, with celebrities or in front of famous buildings of global capitals.
This is the global generic business behavior of the crowd who gets globalized over the years, like Chinese tourists who explore Europe in 10 days more through the displays of their smartphones and IPads, than through their eyes.
On the other hand, you have to self-discipline yourself, to travel or meet a person that matter without making and postings selfies from it, also if you are very enthusiastic. Not many people can do that, but I think some also here on LinkedIn will understand, what I mean.
Through the eyes of old-school academic citizens like me and my friends, it's a parvenu behavior to act as I described before. It's a bit like children explore ice-cream or something for the first time, which is ok for an 8 or 13-year-old but should be basic at a certain age.
I have pity on everybody who behaves in a certain age like this, because you see, that this person explores basic things for the first time in a certain age and is so excited to show off with it, which should be normal, if you are really important or a townsman and make you sometimes ashamed too, but for them, not for yourself and also grateful, that you have enjoyed such a civil education between the age of 6 and 18.
Showing off is good and human, if it's really something that changed the world, but it's ridiculous if you show off with basics, that you should have explored in your age. If you do this with 15 or 20 it's ok, but doing this with 35, 45 or 55, it shows the farmer inside of you, like a person from GDR, who eats with 45 years first time a Banana and showing off with this experience. Real influential people will feel sorry for you, especial if you try to be a global player, but don't understand the global business codex.
So, why I write about that now?
Because I think during these times, we have to explain manners again to the people, who have no clue about it but strive to power more by hard work, then by intelligence and their family background.
This was the reason, why I deleted myself from Facebook and Instagram because I was bored about ordinary things people showed my in their daily stream, showing off with being in Paris, Rome or Beijing, eating Spaghetti or Avocado Toast or Indian Food, etc pp.
Ok, I was also part of this game in the early Facebook period for 3-4 years, but I think as a thinking human with a brain, you should develop yourself and this development, begins for me, with being bored of something, because you got it and you strive for personal development. This, for example, is also, why important people don't wear suits daily, but know, when to wear a smoking. The person with the suit is the driver or bodyguard and who is always available belong to the staff. :-)
For me, it's at the moment important to connect with many people all over the world, who are thinking in the same way regarding this social media topic, and these are very smart people I learned over the last 2 years, when I was traveling a lot, building my silent but high quality BREADUNTER Network around the globe, not showing you every second, where I was traveling and whom I met.
Internet and real-time postings are sometimes like a drug, making you a few seconds happy with ordinary, stupid things, showing the world that you eat pizza or that you are in the Louvre. It also has something of a robot behavior by posting un-reflected bullshit and show off with basics you would not talk about without social media. Imagine a conversation like this:
- "I was standing in front of the Louvre."
- "I was eating a pizza."
- "We were hugging ourselves as friends in front of Eremitage."
- "I put jam on my toast-bread."
I imagine also the times when I returned from a 3 month trip to Teheran or Cairo, where I made 720 slides in 3 months, which was a lot during the year 2000. So, on the first evening, when I returned we had a Dinner with family and friends and just talked about the things I have explored without pictures, only by the imagination of each participant.
Then 2-4 weeks later there was another party or dinner because now we got the slides from the photoshop and watched this now together. I think this helped us to freeze the memories of a trip and also reflect more on things, while we zap today from one country and picture to another in real time, but only on the surface. There is no literature, story or book related to a picture or trip. Our focus today is just taking as many pictures as we can and honk it as fast as we can to our social media accounts to see the likes, which give us a dopamine kick.
I think, now it's time to use social media in a more focused and less way because 95% it's not worth to take attention on. The crowd will not understand this and sometimes I think, it's ok why we have human robots in companies because it's enough for them to work and post generic things on social media to feel good. But on the other hand I am interested in people, who see this new world like me, because they feel, that there could be a renaissance of quality and technology in a smart, but the sustainable way.
So take your best from 1950 - 2005 and start to transform it into 2018,19,20... :-) and keep in mind, that less is more, but the quality is important.
Vienna, 21st of October 2018