Unplug for the Holidays
by: Edward Stringfellow
Don’t worry, the Internet will be fine without you…at least for a few hours. You may even have a chance at conversation with the person in line with you (well if they aren’t intensely staring at their smartphone), maybe call your mother, or some other type of face-to-face human interaction.
Technology is great and enables us to accomplish our tasks with ruthless efficiency. We are masters of our domain, always on, day or night, responding to email, posting to Twitter, and generally never unplugging. The thing is, we need to unplug and reset from time to time. The airplane was the last place you could do that, but now we have in-flight WiFi, oh well…
We are in the business of ensuring that your technology is available 24/7, so I’m certainly not advocating that we quit using it! I am saying that the holiday season is a good time to “unplug” for a while, enjoy time with family and friends, and not worry about responding to that next email within 1 minute! I promise that we will be diligently monitoring everything so that when you “plug back in” you are humming right along in no time.
The advent of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter ensure we keep updated on what people are doing. Don’t confuse this with how they are feeling and what’s really going on in their lives. Take a minute to pick up the phone, get in the car, or write that letter to someone to get a real update. Technology enables us to have a lot MORE relationships than ever before, and I think that’s great. It’s up to us to take the time to add some DEPTH to them, so take the time to do it!
I want to take time and thank all our Clients, team members, and partners for the incredible opportunity we have been given to all work with all of you. We are finishing up our 7th consecutive year of profitable growth and have maintained over 20% growth each year! I hope everyone has a chance to relax, reflect, and unplug sometime in the next week. Merry Christmas!
