Do you know your parent's phone numbers? If you had to recite your best friend birthday, would you know it? What about anniversaries? Do you know your schedule today, tomorrow, next week, next month, without needing to "look"? Ever get a phone call or text that looks foreign on your phone because you don't have the data properly managed in your contact book?
We live in one big hot digital mess and we have ourselves to thank for this. This way of life has consumed our brains cells and capacity to store what was once revered as important information. This way of life has eaten away important parts of us and replaced it with IDevices...machines...that are only as good as the information they have. We are distracted by them and at the same time hugely reliant upon the data we put in them.
Could you live or work productively without yours?
So when it all falls apart, we wonder why...
I recently have become plagued with a messy digital life. Somehow, somewhere along the way of switching jobs and changing my own iDevices, I've lost my sense of organization and attention to contact details. As many know, I am deeply religious about my network. I have spent years and made it a priority to become a super connector of people so when my data or digital world is unhinged, I become crabby. And I did just that this weekend.
My daughter Ally just had her 3rd birthday. I took note of some friends who didn't attend. After seeing pictures and hearing of her birthday through social media, some had the courage to approach me wondering if they had been "excommunicated". After noticing a trend rather quickly, I apologized profusely!
In the process of moving companies, I lost data, distribution lists and in some cases, my digital invites were not received because I didn't have correct information.
In today's world, we are highly accessible, but things get filtered. Systems are unreliable and people can get lost in the black whole of the internet. I thought I had a good enough system, though. I usually send two invites: paper and email. This year though, I sent what few I had of the paper invites, but instead of getting more, I got busy and chose to catch those folks with an electronic invite. Well, I learned my lesson. Some got both invites, some got one, and some didn't get a damn thing.
Two points to this story...
1. It isn't enough anymore that we've stored information with one click. How we manage that information and it's accuracy is important.
2. Meaningful interactions trump data. Don't have just a book of names, but know the real people behind that data and develop meaningful relationships. If you Connect. Create. Share and Show Up, people will forgive you, because you're human! Everyone impacted by the birthday goof-up were gracious because of the deep connectivity we share on a personal level.
Ever forget an important date, or find yourself in a social faux pas due to technology? How did you manage it?
PS - I shall now go and memorize my parent's phone numbers. #prettybadhuh?
