Silence has become the most precious commodity on the planet – even above water. Dr. Joyce Starr on RightsRadio.com
With over 250 million tweets a day and a billion Facebook posts, is it a wonder that many ‘thought-leaders’ can no longer hear themselves think, let alone solve the problems that confront us? How much time do Members of Congress waste tweeting or Facebooking – and to what purpose? Perhaps a day or two of relative silence by national leaders would do us all a world of good.
US Library of Congress poet laureate Philip Levine wrote a poem about too many words in 1999: “He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do.”
“Fact is, silence is the perfect water:
unlike rain it falls from no clouds
to wash our minds, to ease our tired eyes,
to give heart to the thin blades of grass
fighting through the concrete for even air
dirtied by our endless stream of words.”
I recently participated in a teleseminar about the relationship between social networking and the business bottom line. The speaker owns a company that markets social networking strategies to companies large and small.
He opened the teleseminar by bragging that he personally follows several thousand tweets every day while handling a myriad of tasks for his business. I asked myself, “And he hasn’t yet lost his mind?”
It’s well known that multi-tasking makes us less, not more productive – creating distraction and noise on the brain. Could keeping up with thousands of tweets and Facebook posts daily eventually numb or even destroy our brain cells – something like a “repetitive stress social networking syndrome?”
The fellow went on to state that the average gain for companies that vigorously employ Twitter and Facebook is an 8 percent increase in the bottom line. If true, it could mean a great deal of money for medium size and large companies who can afford to hire staff to keep their social networks humming. (Since he’s trying to sell social networking, his numbers might be suspect.)
He even suggested that business owners encourage their staff to post their thoughts throughout the day and then follow the chatter – like an internal Twitter on steroids. Can you imagine the chairman of a billion dollar company having nothing better to do? Would you invest in that company?
But what about small business owners and entrepreneurs who are already stretched thin? Is keeping up with Twitter and Facebook a plus or a drain on your productivity and income? Can you handle it with current staff or is it necessary to add staff? How do the financial benefits compare to the costs and time output?