Christmas Decorations: Is One Way the Best?

The Story

Its the week after Christmas and I've begun to think about taking down the holiday decorations. As I was out for a walk this morning, I decided to take a closer look at my neighbors' selections this year. Throughout the town home community there are still many remaining signs of the holiday.

Some of my neighbors appeared to favor the simple, adorning their decks with strings of white lights. Others displayed bows, flags, ornaments and wreaths. And a select few seem to love everything about the holiday, placing a wide variety of signs, symbols and colors around the perimeter of their dwellings.

In the habits of decorating I also noticed patterns related to individuality and collaboration. In some cases, the decorations were unique, individual and singular. Some neighbors appeared to have collaborated in color scheme or theme. In at least one case, an entire group of homes had created a unified display of bows and lights for their combined unit.

The Technology

In working in education for over twenty-five years, I have seen the many different ways that we engage with and utilize technology. Often times humans employ a large group mentality. We use the technologies that are given to us, in the ways that we are directed by those in leadership positions. This style of useage often creates results that are more uniform and predictable.

For many years, as a member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), I saw another familiar pattern. At the annual convention, presentations often focused on creative uses of technology - on what was perceived as new or "hot." This stance had the impact of creating a group of users who based their practices on replicating the popular or innovative.

The third means of engaging with technology might be defined as highly individualized. In this stance, technology users are more intuitive, unique, and less status driven. These sorts of individuals engage with the technologies of their choosing in the manner which best fits their lived situation.

Connections

The two examples this week have many similarities. They both contain clues into understanding ourselves and the ways in which use experiences to relate to one another as human beings.  Each example illustrates how we each choose to collaborate with a group, replicating the ideas of others, or maintain our individuality.

In thinking about these three categories, I began to think about why we seek to describe and compare our lived situations in the first place. I believe one of the reasons is a common desire to understand and make sense of our world. Creating categories supports our understanding in the same way that metaphors provide us cognitive frameworks to connect to our prior knowledge to new and novel situations. 

I believe, however, that there is a potential challenge to consider in our over use of categories and descriptors.  So often I see myself becomming trapped in a particular way of seeing, being and knowing - of assuming that the way in which I perceive or "decorate" my world is the only or best way to do things.  As we each begin the process of taking down Christmas decorations, I invite us to examine the motivations behind our particular way of doing things. In this New Year, may we each find ways to become more mindful of our use of technology to connect with others and retain our individuality.

2014 image courtesy of Pixabay: www.pixabay.com