When I was young I have done many foolish things.
Luckily back then, there was no smartphone to document it all…
After a silly mistake, we laughed about it, went home, and never mentioned it again.
No one would ever remind me of that one failure.
Nowadays everything can be documented with the help of our devices…
Kids and people are like paparazzi now, ready to document anything funny or shocking with their smartphone.
Photos are posted and shared, and then a lot more people know about that one happening…
I can imagine this is very exhausting and overwhelming.
This is one of the reasons we are very careful in the offline world.
Another reason is that we are used to protecting ourselves in the online world.
We don’t just communicate with our core friends anymore.
We engage in conversations with strangers as well.
We post content that is visible to people we don’t know.
The result of that is that people can give us negative feedback.
Anyone can now experience hateful comments and bullying.
With our guards up all the time in the virtual world…. we tend to forget how to live without that guard.
The more we get used to acting behind a brick wall that protects us…the more that persona becomes our real persona.
Our real persona aka our offline persona aka our real selves.
When we are constantly careful in the online world, we tend to be careful in the offline world as well.
This means we forget how to establish new relationships.
We don’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to open up.
We are not used to doing this in the online world, so it’s easy to copy-paste that behavior in the offline world.
Do not forget that the online persona comes with a different set of rules which do not apply to your offline persona: the real you.
Don’t neglect your communication and social skills.
Don’t think you have to bring that wall to the offline world, not to such an extreme extent.
At the end of the day, the wall doesn’t only protect you but blocks your blessings at the same time.
Don’t be afraid of intimacy in the offline world.
Know how to be vulnerable and transparent.
Don’t be so distant all the time. Know when you can open yourself up.
Don’t allow yourself to be so cold and distant if that’s how you operate in the virtual world.
The offline world operates on a whole different set of rules, don’t forget them and don’t neglect them.