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

Three Little Birds: What is the Focus?

The Story
One morning last week I was having coffee and reading before jumping into work on my computer. Having just made the bold leap into launching my technology consulting business, I noticed some sensations of anxiety and anxiousness in my torso. As I probed the feelings I was able to identify the tell-tale signs of fear.  I noticed my inner voice saying things like, "What are you doing? Why don't you just get a job? This is never going to work. You'll have to get a job at some point anyway." As I sat there bringing presence to these negative thoughts, trying to turn them into positive statements, I heard some stirrings on the deck below.

"singing a sweet song, a melody pure and true..."

Moving over to the window, I looked down find three little birds on my porch. They were singing back and forth to one another. The three house wrens, as I quickly identified them, were plump, chipper, and joyfully greeting one another.  They hopped back and forth, singing their song in a continuous stream, welcoming each other and the morning. Their brightness and and authenticity was so forceful that my mood immediately began to improve. I began to smile, then giggle. Soon I was actually laughing at their silly merry making on my doorstep!

Still basking in the joy of that moment I thought, "Well, now what shall I do with my day?" With a feeling of lightness in my heart, I immediately heard the response, "Perhaps I'll go to that business marketing meeting I read about in the paper last week!" For a brief moment, the feeling of doubt crept into my mind again. And, as if on cue, I heard the wren's song again. I looked out of the window. This time one of the three house wrens had flown up into the tree directly across from my window. It was as though she had flown up specifically to remind me to stay up and joyful. Her contagious song inspired me to quickly shower, dress, and head out to the early morning meeting with a positive outlook and skip to my step.

The Technology
A friend sent me an email recently telling me how depressing he finds the state of the world - he had been watching the local evening news on TV that night. His note, combined with the experience of the three wrens, got me thinking about the ways in which our technologies have the potential to profoundly influence our view of the world, our outlook on life, and even our feelings and moods.

What is the focus?

Personally, I have been exploring the impact of not watching TV at home for some time now.  In our house we have only the basic cable and generally only watch movies on the weekend.  As a family, we make art together, read together, take walks, go to the museum or playground together.  When we use our individual technologies, we are mindful of the amount of time we spend on our devices, choosing the duration together and then sticking to our plans to unplug.

I've also started to think about my choices and use of social media in this same light. Having given up TV for the most part, I recognize the same potential stream of energetically charged stories and ideas coming from sources such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. While I may not turn on the TV often, I do look at the news in print form on the internet, and I do connect with others through email, chat, texting, and sharing ideas through social media channels.  I do feel that similarly, some messages promote feelings of spaciousness, joy and love in my body, while others create fear, doubt, and anger.  So I've begun to ask myself, "What is the focus?" I then make my choices from a place of awareness.

Connections
Can you identify the ways in which technology influences your thoughts, your mood, or even your actions?  Have you ever found yourself upset after watching a TV show or news report for no apparent reason?  Do you sometimes feel irritation over the volume of texts and emails you receive? Do you sometimes become annoyed with trivial nature of your friends' Facebook and Twitter posts?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then perhaps you've identified a way in which the focus of the message being sent is impacting your lived experience in less than positive ways.

So many of us are already hard on ourselves, questioning our actions, our words, our choices.  Then we also unknowingly allow the messages that come in our devices to intensify feelings of fear, anger, guilt.   Its no wonder so many of us are depressed, anxious, and even sick.  The interesting thing though is - we've all experienced ways in which our technologies can just as easily create feelings of love, joy, and acceptance.  In beginning to notice the physical sensations and thoughts that follow our use of technology, perhaps we can begin to make more thoughtful choices about what to view, when to use our technologies, and when to unplug for the sake of our personal happiness and that of others.  Perhaps we can all learn to look for the three little birds in our daily use of technology.

As I began to write this post and work on its title, I was reminded of Bob Marley's famous song, "Three Little Birds." I searched for a recording of the song online.  As it began to play on the tab I'd opened in my browser to YouTube and I was reminded of Bob's wisdom about the message that his three little birds have to share with us all:

"Don't worry 'bout a thing, 'Cause every little thing gonna be all right." 

Thanks Bob.  Thank you to those who have chosen to utilize technology to share uplifting messages with the world.  And most especially, thank you three little wrens - for coming to my doorstep that morning to lift my spirits - and for then inspiring this post.


Images:  wren and social media pictures courtesy of http://pixabay.com
Video:  Bob Marley video courtesy of http://www.youtube.com