NO, I JUST TYPE FAST & THINK EVEN FASTER
“How do you manage to spend so much time on Facebook?!!! You are ALWAYS posting! Do you actually have a life”
I get these questions a lot, so I’m laying it down here as a Blog post so that next time it comes up I can just direct people to my full and final answer on the subject.
There are many reasons for my rather enthusiastic use of Facebook, and a few reasons why I can seemingly put out so much information in a relatively short space of time:
I love sharing ideas, exploring concepts, talking to people, and I don’t mind whether that is face-to-face, online, by phone, via Skype, through the written word, or on social media. What I particularly like about Facebook is the real time interactivity of it. I can pose a question, and bam, 2 minutes later there are 10 comments, alternative perspectives, confirmation, or opposing views.
It is more alive than something like writing a Blog which is in essence more passive. I or the Blogger writes, you read it, and like it and share it, for which I am very grateful, yet I still don’t really get to interact with you or know who you are unless you write a comment, which I have found with Blog posts that people rarely do in comparison to Facebook.
I could put the same Blog information up as a post on Facebook and get over 100 comments on the subject or point of discussion, as opposed to one or zero comments through my Blog or other online mediums.
I also love the variety of social media, and Facebook in particular. In one ‘sitting’ I can laugh, cry, connect with friends all over the world, be taken aback, have my views challenged, learn something new, and see something that I’ve never seen before that more than likely I wouldn’t have come across during the course of my day.
I type fast. In between doing my Business Degree and Post Graduate Marketing Diploma, and heading into the world of work, and before becoming the Hypnotherapist and the Mind TranceFormation™ Coach that I now am, I was a shorthand secretary and PA. I attended Secretarial School for a year and did typing, shorthand, word processing (which is what it was called back in the day), minutes & meetings dictation, and audio typing. What that means in social media speak is that I can knock out several hundred words in a couple of minutes.
Nowadays, having left the secretarial world behind me, I also teach Accelerated Learning, Creative Thinking, PhotoReading™, Intuitive Learning, etc, and what that means in social media and facebook terms is that the ideas come thick and fast and it doesn’t take me long to translate and articulate those thoughts and ideas and lay them down in words.
I harness the power of what I call in PhotoReading™ terms ‘Incubation Breaks’ where in between a task or coming up with ideas you take a break and do something totally different. Back in the day where I worked in an office people would go off for a coffee break or cigarette break. Given that I neither drink coffee nor smoke, Facebook is my form of coffee break.
I also use Facebook as a source of creativity. I often ponder some of the big questions in life, and getting into discussions and debates with people allows me to clarify my own thinking. Sometimes that might mean challenging some of my old thoughts or ideas. At other times it serves to strengthen my resolve or points of view on a particular issue.
I am also what I call a ‘tween’ time user of Facebook and social media in that I will reply to posts and update my status in between times; In between clients, in between meetings, in between the segments of my day. If I have 5 minutes before my train arrives I could meditate, or PhotoRead a book if I have one with me, or I could reply to some posts and messages. Either way I’ve made use of that time. Because my day might have anything up to 10 different segments, that’s a lot of 5-15 minute tween times.
I also believe in the power and energy of words. Words can touch you, help to heal you, give you reassurance, let you know that you are not alone, provide delicious food for thought, and provide comfort in those times where things seem hopeless or bleak. Much like the now lost art of corresponding and letter writing, I see Facebook as the modern day equivalent.
Just because those words are now on a screen as opposed to a piece of parchment paper or being spoken face to face, I don’t see that it makes them any less valid. It is a modern day form of human connection, and I am just moving with the social media times.
And that last point isn’t mere speculation on my part. I regularly receive private messages, e-mails, and verbal confirmation that my posts have that effect. Everything from: “Thank you so much for what you said about ‘x’, that is exactly how I feel so I’m glad to know I’m not the only one” through to: “I don’t read much on Facebook but I always go and have a look at your page because it’s so inspiring and I know I’ll find just what I need whether I want to laugh, dance, or expand my thinking.”
I wrote a post on Boardroom Bullying the other week, and within 10 minutes of sharing it I had received several private messages and a 4 page e-mail where people were expressing a huge sense of relief in knowing that they weren’t crazy or losing their mind or most importantly, weren’t stupid or alone in having it happen to them.
That happens with so many of my posts that I have almost lost count, yet I treasure every one because I know that in my own small way I have helped to lighten someone’s day.
“Can anybody out there hear me?”
And I admit that sometimes if it weren’t for those private messages or the things people say about my Facebook page when I meet them in person, I might not be inclined to post so regularly because there are those days where you can feel as though you are writing into thin air and wonder if anyone is really watching or listening. Trust me, they are.
What does social media do for me?
So, in a nutshell, Facebook and social media for me are:
- Great fun
- A way of interacting in real time with relatives and friends
- A portal for chatting with people I have never met and may in fact never meet
- A creative outlet
- Educational
- Thought provoking
- Ways to to push my buttons and shake up old beliefs
- A way of seeing things that might not have otherwise come onto my radar
- A brilliant way of testing out thoughts and ideas
- A wonderful way to share information, knowledge, and ideas
- The perfect way to inspire people to take #DanceBreaks
And in answer to the original question about where I find the time and whether I spend my ‘whole life’ on Facebook, the answer is “no.”
A typical Facebook filled day . . . . .
A typical day this week included sending out my daily Gratitude & Magic Practice e-mail, writing and sending out my eNewsletter, going out for a jog, doing a telephone Coaching Session, writing a proposal for a corporate Executive Coaching contract, writing a magazine article (on Mindfulness) for the Tesco Living website, converting my PhotoReading™ MasterMind Group call into an mp3 and updating the Dream Play handout for the attendees, doing a TranceFormation Programme Skype session, doing a Triple Deck Tarot Card Reading, running a group coaching Teleseminar, creating mp3’s for the Tarot Sessions and sending the clients photographs of the spreads, replying to e-mails, and knocking up a quick Mind Map. Oh, and updating Facebook of course!
If social media had taken over my life I suspect my day would look more like: Looked at some cute cat photos, watched a cute kid on video, played Candy Crush with some friends, looked at more cute children and animal pictures and videos . . . . . .
And I have no problem if people do spend their days watching cute cat video’s, each to their own.
So there you have it.
I believe that explains my position on this question.
Happy posting and sharing to you all!
Marilyn
ABOUT MARILYN DEVONISH
Marilyn Devonish is a Freelance Magazine Writer, Keynote Speaker, Workshop Facilitator, The Mind TranceFormation™ Coach, and a Global Thinker.
She is a Business Graduate, Prince2 Project Manager, Management Consultant, Hypnotherapist, Certified Trainer of NLP, Certified PhotoReading™ Instructor, Soul Plan Reader, Angel Tarot Card Reader, Archetypal Profiling Coach and Life and Executive Coach. Marilyn is also a Practitioner of Hawaiian Huna, DNA Theta Healing, Energetic NLP, EFT, DNA Theta Healing, Positive EFT, Access Bars, Access Consciousness (there others but that will suffice and give you the gist of it!)
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