Telling The Story Of Ourselves
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to listen and participate in an interesting discussion that took place following a presentation by CT Moore at the latest edition of PodCamp Montreal. Although his talk revolved around whether a particular character from the drama series “Mad Men” would consider writing a blog, the conversations it sparked got me thinking about the stories that we tell.
Without question, we all have stories that we choose to share with others. When we meet people for the first time, we often share with them the story of what we do for a living. With those we’re more familiar with or comfortable talking to, we share stories about what we did over the weekend or what latest feat our child recently accomplished. As the years roll on by, we share stories from our past that remind us not only of the good times we’ve had, but also of how far we have travelled since then. With the growth in online social networking sites, our ability to share such stories has unquestionably grown, if not along with it the size of audience we might draw in with our tales. But what about the stories we now share?
Thanks to the real-time nature of Twitter and now Facebook, we have the opportunity to document and share every moment, every experience, every idea. Though this obviously adds to a clearer understanding of what interests us, of what captures our attention, I wonder how much it also accurately reflects what truly matters to us. If not for the convenience and simplicity of these sites, how many of these encounters we have in social settings, or those meals we plan or consume, or even those daily events we now chronicle and dispatch into our feeds would we find ourselves recalling and re-telling to others long after the moment has passed? Indeed, if not for the immediacy of seeing these moments documented and preserved, how many of them would we even notice or care to ponder beyond that fleeting moment? And perhaps most importantly, what does it add to our story, to how we want to define who we are to others, if not ourselves?
Since the beginning of time, man has relied on telling stories to pass along information to future generations, as well as to impart to others a deeper understanding of who we are. We relied on some internal filtering system to help us decide what ideas or experiences we wished to share and which ones we’d rather keep in the privacy of our own thoughts. And in many ways, what stories we shared about ourselves was as revealing as which ones we kept close to our chest. In this age of instant updates that can be proffered no matter where we are, it can be a challenge at times to know what moments might be useful to share and which ones are best left unsaid. As was the case when man first started telling tales around the camp fire, the choice lies in all of us as to what ideas and experiences we wish to share with others, of what story we want to tell about ourselves.
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