Trina Hoefling Untethered

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 More and more, opting in to someone’s virtual communication is an invitation to information overload.  Good information, but too much! Further, as technology sophistication lets us automate, online cultural context risks becoming even more transactional.

We have to think and calculate before we engage with one another and with what we create for one another. Do I really want to be in touch with this person or group? Will I read it or just stash it somewhere out of sight? Will I miss something important if I just say NO?

Do you ever look at your inbox and ask yourself how you got so many connections yet have so few REAL conversations?

It doesn’t take much friction to disrupt my social ecology. When I process 300 emails a day (not counting my communities of practice or the JUNK) and become a machine in my activity, I need to wake up! When I realize only 20 - 30 are one-on-one conversations, I wonder about the quality of my time and relationship management. Am I in too far, or just skimming the outskirts of too many communities? I lurk more than I chime in…. What conclusions should I draw from that?

I’m a learning junkie and make no apology. I opt in to more than I can really keep up with, but have opened a world for mysef I would otherwise not experience.

Result? Info overload, more learning to manage, and some serendipitous and wonderful resources and friendships as well. Without resorting to classic time management and strict self controls, how else have you balanced being an open system with a need to set boundaries on your time and commitments?

As much variety as my work  has, at the foundation, I help people expand emotional bandwidth - f2f and virtually. My hope is to contribute my part in expanding emotional bandwidth on the net, in our communities, and in our virtual work. Balancing the information and the clutter is a part of keeping emotional bandwidth going.

Becoming more consciously aware of how I either contribute to expanding emotional bandwidth or to impersonal transactions…. I am doing my part to help facilitate the Internet as a world resource and as a relationship building vehicle. I’d love to be at the center of some great conversations about how to expand emotional bandwidth online without burying ourselves in undifferentiated information!