Online Networking is as Important as Real-World networking.

Me, I make decisions on a moment by moment basis. Meaning that if things change, then I change.
I can adapt to almost any situation, and usually without much contemplation. I find this a good trait, yet some people think it means I am two-faced. Yeah, I can see that, but they see this as a negative. I see it as a necessary method to overcome (almost) any obstacle.

If one situation requires me to submissive, then I will submit. If the next situation is failing to meet expectations, I will find other ways to overcome that obstacle – even if that means being domineering. Or as I prefer to say: Persuasive. It’s not difficult, it just means being aware of people’s needs, communication barriers and being empathetic to everyone’s situations.

A few days ago I posted this message upon my Facebook wall:

“People need to understand that “Special Needs” children don’t have an illness, there is no cure, and are not contagious. They only want what we all want = To be accepted. 93% of you probably won’t copy and paste this. Will you be in the 7% that will and leave it on your status for at least an hour?”

I like the message this presents, I like the forwardness of the words, the question it asks of all who read it, and the suggestion that they would not be able to meet the requirements. Plus I really like the sentiment. My wife and I do not have kids, yet we dote on our nieces like they are our own, plus we support children-charities whenever possible.

Within a few minutes, this same message started appearing on my ‘friends’ walls.
This was cool. They were coming back to my wall to make comments on the quote. So did the person through which I found the quote. I was most impressed with those who were committed to keeping it on their status for more than few hours. I’m going for a week. Three days so far.

Yesterday a new online friend (whom I won’t name for privacy reasons) sent me a message that basically says:

Hi there Stephen.
I feel guilty that I changed my status. It’s played on my mind so I want to tell you why I did so.
{issue removed}
Meaning that I don’t dwell on these things and take each day at a time. So having it in my status is putting the hurt all back in my face each time I look at it. I hope you don’t mind me candid and I hope you understand. I’m not denying … just processing. {more removed}.
The other stuff is just a management issue I guess.
Cheers
XXXXXXXX

I admit I spent a few minutes reading this person’s response over and over again. I arrived at a conclusion based on where my heart is, the slight tear in my eye (relating to their issue), plus a lot of personal-reasoning:

XXXXXXXX,
Don’t let this status-thing worry you any further, it’s not worth it. You obviously have far bigger concerns! Particularly under those circumstances. What would be really cool is that you write all this up and put into a blog or something similar: You’ll be surprised to find an amazing backup via the Internet.
From a concerned friend.

A few hours later they responded:

Thanks Stephen. :)
I know status things seem trivial. I have a way of blowing up unimportant things I guess. One of my many delightful quirks. Yes, I do write about it from time to time. {Part of issue removed}.
XXXX is very good at fudging things i.e. if she doesn’t understand something it can be tricky to know it as she works her way around it. I’m on the better end of a black tunnel at the moment. A difference a day makes, as the song goes.

It was at this point that I decided to cease correspondence. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was seeing something else here.

Online networking is as, and in some circumstances more so, important as real-world networking.

Too often we hear in the media that online networking is a waste of time, is killing people’s brains, and a waste of a good medium. Bollocks.

The internet was born about forty years ago to enable two colleges to communicate and send data quickly and easily. Basically, nothing has changed since then. Now it’s all about semantics, form, function and appearance.

In order to reach this point, everyone who uses the internet has had to go through a slow learning curve. We’ve been shaped by the very nature of the WWW, the latest trends, fads, domains and clustering of people together.

Those with a penchant for social networking have grouped into the areas that interest them most, and are now learning how to communicate effectively using the written word rather than the spoken word.

This is all good, important, and most interesting.

Like many others, I continually learn new ways of corresponding via the WWW by ‘fudging‘ them first, testing the possibilities, then learning from the outcomes.

Twitter, Plurk, Facebook and many other SocNet domains have introduced us all to differing styles of cross-communication, all without seeing people’s true faces, knowing their family nor even meeting them. Whilst it concerns many, it fascinates those of us with a thirst for new and diverse information!

Thanks to the email-response from this new-found friend, it’s apparent we can all learn from every circumstance that life leads us into.

The internet has enabled everyone to talk via typing with people around the world, thereby giving us more to do, achieve, acquire and learn. The whole world is now teaching the rest of the world through their very activity on the WWW. When people f#&% up, we watch and respond. When friends display their inner-feelings, we respond accordingly – and sometimes badly but mostly appropriately.

This is a lesson for everyone: Your online activity may not be seen by everyone, but you will need to account for your words when it all goes pair-shaped. Trust me, that’s not a lesson you want to miss, nor have to go through again.

The moral here?
Most of us have it fairly easy in life, whereas some ‘fudge’ things in order to learn. Don’t let little moments where you fail to meet other people’s standards let you stop being yourself, stop learning, nor stop your life.

/ end rant. Not sure if anyone else will fully comprehend this, but I feel good for typing it all out. Despite being 5.15am.