Crow Calls: Is Anyone Listening?

The Story

It was very cold out this morning. So cold in fact, I thought about not taking a my usual morning walk. But something tugged on me, urging me up and out. And so and I bundled up and headed out into the brisk morning air.  

Are you certain that no one is listening?

About three-quarters of the way through my jaunt I heard a crow calling directly overhead. I stopped and looked up into the early morning sky to see a single crow. The crow was sitting very close to the top of the tree, cawing every so often. As he vocalized his morning message I listened carefully - there appeared to be no other responses in return - that no one was listening to his message.

I found myself listening more intently to the calls. Each caw, sounded to my ears to be virtually the same as the other before it. I then found myself counting the calls, listening for a pattern. This led me to some thinking about the importance of the number of caws, the shape and length of each call, the lack of response from another crow. I then wondered about the possible message this particular crow was sending to various listeners in its vicinity.

The Technology

A few years ago I had a chance to collaborate with a young high school student while she was working on her college applications. As she looked at various universities, she identified a particular program which matched her particular vision for how she would like to work as an adult. The program also offered generous scholarship opportunities for a select few students, which would help my friend to afford the costs of the education she hoped to acquire.

The trail left behind sends a message about you.

As we worked on refining her application letter, to truly convey her unique skills and passions, we also talked about the concept of digital footprints.The equivalent of the trail left behind on the Internet, allowing others to see where you have been, the review of student's digital footprints are increasingly becoming part of the college admission review processes.  

While looking at ways to clean up her image (her Tweets and Facebook posts were much far more benign than many teens nowadays)  we also talked about more mindful posting. We first took time to look at the scholarship applications and then at her selected program's online presence. We talked about her current online image and how it compared to the kind of student that the program illustrated in its promotional materials. We wrapped up the conversation with some brainstorming about how to market her skills and achievements, related to the mission of the scholarship program.

Connections

Twitter, and its proliferation of short (40 words or less) and instantaneous messaging to a broad audience seems to have a logical connection both parts of today's metaphor - beyond the immediate the bird connections. Many of us use Twitter as a mechanism to "call out" to one another without knowing if anyone in particular is listening at all. I would caution that the assumption so many make that: "no one cares or that no one is really listening," is not only lacking mindfulness, it can create unintentional limitations to what is possible. 

Create a mindful reflection of who you are.

My high school friend started her clean-up process by eliminating superfluous and random Tweets - the ones that were of a more personal nature. She then created a mental image of the adult she'd like to become and we identified some strategies for Tweeting from that point forward with that image in mind.  I believe she began to realize, as I have in my own mindful exploration of technology tools, that the total sum of your Tweets (or any other digital musings for that matter) can come to define (or potentially misrepresent) you as a person, to the myriad of others who are watching and listening. 

The crow of my morning walk illustrated to me the importance of consciously monitoring the number, frequency, duration, content, and patterns in our use of tools such as Twitter. Even if we "don't speak crow," I belive we can each become more mindful of the messages we are sending and the image others create of us, by regularly reviewing our digital footprints.  By beginning to clean up messages which either define us two narrowly or inappropriately and creating a mental image of where we would like to go, we may each create a more mindful reflection of who we are through our use of social media tools.

Images courtesy of Pixabay:  www.pixabay.com