Everyday experiences give us great insights into the way our society is changing – better or worse.
Slowly we are becoming a society of virtual connection as against one that valued personal touch. While the virtual world has made it easy to get a lot of things done, living entirely in the virtual space has its limitations. People need to become considerate of each other, and a personal touch goes a long way in solving simple problems.
I was privy to one such incident in my society recently.
A complaint was posted by one of the residents of the society on the society’s WhatsApp group. The complaint was about a fellow resident who was living a floor below this gentleman. The issue was of loud music being played late in the night…
The complaint was addressed to the society president and was resolved when the society president directed the security supervisor to visit the concerned resident’s place and request him to turn down the volume of the music.
What is the issue here? Wouldn’t the issue be resolved in a less complex way if the concerned resident would have communicated to the other resident by himself?
Not only the issue would have been resolved but a new acquaintance would have been created between the two residents. All that was probably required was a knock on the door and a small request for consideration. Escalation to the society president was probably not needed.
Just thinking of this incident – I can’t help but draw parallels to what we regularly see in the professional sphere.
We fight it out over email but hardly make an effort to get up and communicate with our colleagues and find solutions. The office would also be a lot more rewarding if we collaboratively interacted more than the regular fight, we keep getting involved in.
Living in a society is one thing and making ourselves a part of a larger community is another.
Let’s imagine a scenario from the above narrative.
The resident walks down to his/her fellow resident’s house and requests them to turn down the volume of their music and explain the problem to them.
What would have happened?
Both the residents might have talked and gotten to know more about each other. They might have developed a better bond and might even have helped each other as good neighbors do.
When we communicate with people, we are not just making a friend or an acquaintance, we are expanding our circle and helping form a person-to-person network that will most definitely help someone’s life within that chain or even outside that chain in the future. These chains expand multiple folds with every person making an effort to just communicate to another person. This is the true strength of networking that business often wants to capitalize on.
Are we making any effort to become a part of the larger community? Food for thought…
Let’s all make an effort towards this common goal and communicate as much as possible. Holi is just around the corner – are we ready to send greetings over whatsapp or are we going to pick up the phone and call a few people we have not interacted with for some time? How about walking upto your neighbor’s house?
It takes time and effort to create bonds and relationships.
There is a life full of smiles and personal touches beyond our virtual world, we just need to realize it and walk up to people and communicate.
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