branding

Sab·bat·i·cal
[suh-bat-i-kuhl]
3.  bringing a period of rest.

During the summer of 2010 three people I respect took varying breaks from social media. The degree of their breaks were also varied. One man went totally off the grid – no cell phone, no email, no social media of any kind, only land line calls (brief) and face-to-face interaction. Another man took all those steps, and added to it a physical relocation for a rest. The third simply rolled his vacation into a needed break from social media. When I read of their intended breaks I knew it was something I needed to do as well.

From Oct. 1 – Oct. 31, I removed myself from all forms of social media. I still allowed for my cell phone, email, IM, and texting because that’s how I interact with my clients.

If you ask my wife/business partner, she’d say I am one of the people in the new Windows Phone 7 commercial. I am not proud (ok, a little bit) to say that she has asked “Really?!” a few times of my social media via handset obsession/compulsion.

My intuition was telling me to take a break, reassess the role of social media in my personal and professional life, and, as a client recently suggested, “…think about how you think.” Now that I’m back, I wanted to jot down a few points I’ve taken from my time of rest, and share them, for what it’s worth.

Here are some things I gleaned from my social media sabbatical:

• Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, etc. are great resources, but they will never fully replace time spent face to face with another human being. There simply is no replacement for the interaction between two or more people who are genuinely interested in each other.
• I have value to people. There were a handful of friends and clients who would not stand for 31 days of no interaction, and receiving their phone call invitation to hang out was a real treat. I had no idea all that stuff I write about pertaining to branding and life means anything to anyone besides me. There are a few people that I got to know on a deeper level thanks to their pursuit of me, and I am humbled by it.
• I wonder what social media is doing to the relationships we have where lots of time goes by between meetings? We normally depend on a bullet point summary of what’s happened with each other to carry through the awkwardness of certain relationships. What happens when we already know the bullet points (and more) thanks to Facebook and Twitter? What happens when the dynamic of an un-friended distant family member or client sets in at a yearly function after several years of SM influence? Will the Reunion even be necessary or wanted? I thought a lot about this while away. I’m thinking that a Great Honing is coming where those of us with 300+ “friends” feel the need to make drastic cuts, and for good reason.
• Being away put me out of the loop in a few big ways. Whether is was scheduling for my house church’s weekly time together, an announcement from a brand I have great interest in, or the day and time of a function with friends, I found myself dependent on my wife for these details, and she’s not a details person. Planning via SM has become the unspoken norm.
• And last, but perhaps most important to me: Life and business keep moving with or without social media. I found that even while out of the must-know-now loop I still kept pace, made meaningful connections, and spent time well. In other words, SM is great and all, but if all the server farms blew up, or if The Cloud evaporated tomorrow, it ultimately wouldn’t matter to how I – and dare I assume most intelligent people – would connect with others.

I don’t want to leave the impression that SM doesn’t have real value. It certainly does, and more so each day. But it was nice to step aside for a while, take a breath and enjoy a part of life without the Likes, Tweets, and Connections. I think I’ll make a habit of doing this now and then to re-center as a business owner and man.