The World Wide Web allows us to see, hear, watch, read and talk about the experiences of literally millions of people, from thousands of places, at any time of the day or night. And that, when you sit down and truly think about it, is an astonishing reality…one made possible by ongoing advances in technology, access to more and faster bandwidth and social media in all its many forms.
The question is: are we really broadening our horizons, or just cluttering up our lives with endless noise that drowns out our inner voice of direction and guidance?
I believe the answer is both.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been wrestling with some stuff that hasn’t been positively contributing to my life. After acknowledging that my life isn’t where and what I want it to be, I started digging into the whys and wherefores. During this time of introspection I cut down on my media consumption; social media in particular. Why? Because although I find a lot of value in it, *I was allowing* the noise to drown out my inner voice…which was telling me that there were things I needed to sit down and deal with. Immediately.
Don’t get me wrong: technology isn’t bad. Social media isn’t bad. In fact I find them fascinating, and have learned a lot about both from some really cool people; many of whom don’t live anywhere near me geographically. They’ve inspired me, taught me and encouraged me in a way that makes my life richer and much more dimensional. The drawback to all these positives? It’s oh-so-easy to allow the sheer volume of emails, notifications, tweets, posts, requests, games, etc. – in a word, noise – to take over your life…drowning out that inner voice that’s trying to tell you some important things. You know, those things. The ones you really don’t want to deal with. Things like “you need to stop living vicariously and get your shit together” or “you’ve got some serious issues to deal with” along with that nagging mental reminder to get the damn grocery shopping/laundry/housework done, like, yesterday.
There’s no magic elixir to “cure” yourself of this noise overload. There’s only you. Your decision to make changes in how you handle stuff; your willpower to begin something and then keep it going (or not); your commitment to regularly evaluate where you are and what you’re doing to achieve your goals and dreams as life hurdles forward at ever-increasing speeds on the wings of technology and social media.
Have you heard from your inner voice lately?