The Lost Art of Conversation
January 4, 2008 - כ"ז טבת תשס"ח by admin
Hi, my name is David and I am an addict …
I’m addicted to my Blackberry, I’m addicted to information in a digital format, I’m addicted to Twitter, I get nervous when I’m not “connected” …
I’m an addict …
I’ve made a commitment for 2008 that I will reduce (and hopefully totally eliminate) my CPA [continuous partial attention] behavior. I will concentrate on one task at a time and complete that one task before starting another. I will reduce my reliance on email communication. I will not interrupt my current thought process to check my Blackberry, my Gmail, my Facebook, my LinkedIn, post to my Tumblr …
It’s insane!
I will wean myself from the information overload dependency that I’ve developed over the past years. Reading email and sending email while driving is a stupid, stupid, stupid activity – life threatening and really stupid! Reading email and sending email while supposedly communicating with colleagues, family and friends is a big no-no. It’s disrespectful, stupid and sad!
I realize that these behaviors have significantly impaired my ability to really LISTEN, to communicate effectively, to think deeply …
Instead, I will engage in real conversation / real dialog with real, live people in real-time using our oldest and most powerful piece of technology – one’s G-d given ability to speak with one’s vocal chords, mouths and tongues and to listen with one’s ears.
Today was Day 1 of my quest to rediscover the real, authentic, human David. I left home at 4am this morning to travel to Detroit where I spent the day engaging in real conversations with real people in real-time sans moi Blackberry, sans moi Laptop, sans moi cellphone …
I returned home at 8pm to find I had over 300 emails in my collective inboxes – if you’re one of the people who sent me an email today, I may not reply … ever.
Instead, you may be surprised to receive a phone call from me where we can talk with each other about the real issues …
Let’s (re)engage in the lost art of conversation …
