This is my final post of the five-day BSU BlogFest series, where BSU community members share their thoughts on a common topic each day. BSU BlogFest is one of the featured aspects of Social Media Week, hosted by the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership. Please check out other bloggers' contributions via the BSU BlogFest web site!
Friday's BlogFest Theme: The Future
Firstly, I have really enjoyed writing these blogs for BSU BlogFest this week, as well as reading many of the other contributors' thoughtful and fun posts. I hope that we can continue this throughout the year perhaps on a weekly basis. Blogging allows for people to reflect and share their ideas in a creative way. It also provides insight into the lives of fellow BSU community members, especially for those of us who may not communicate much with each other outside of the classroom and the workplace. I've definitely appreciated that folks have opened up to the extent they have.
So this final post for the week pertains to "the future." I don't think I'm very good at looking far ahead in time, and that may or may not be a bad thing. I'm kind of limited to being a "one year ahead" sort of guy but no further than that. I suppose that's because I appreciate the idea of leaving many doors open for opportunities that might come my way. Most of my major life decisions have come about purely by chance. I've often initially disregarded an opportunity at first glance but then found that opportunity to be amazing after a second more thorough look. This worldview I hold has something to do with my personality, I'm sure. As a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) aficionado, I can quickly state and explain my type preferences: INFP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving). The first three are fairly self-explanatory, but as a Perceiving type, I tend to go with the flow and let things happen to a certain extent. I just don't feel the need to control everything. By the way, if you ever want to know your type, just ask - I'm a certified MBTI administrator!
But I'll go out on a limb for this blog post and offer up a general somewhat rambling sense of what I think the future might hold for us.
We are generally part of a global community nowadays because social media and the internet make it so easy to be that way. But I'm a strong believer in the idea of a cyclical life. I think within the next twenty years, we may very well find that the concept of a local community -- a village, as Hillary Rodham Clinton would say -- will dominate again.
As the world becomes a much more complicated and complex place, it's getting more difficult for anyone to make broad, sweeping decisions (other than perhaps in the corporate world). That may sound pessimistic, but I don't intend that to be the case. Where greater numbers of individuals might feel socially isolated (ironically) in a social media kind of world, I think we may find folks will return to focusing on relationships on a local level. Why? Because empathy and human connection flourish best with face-to-face communication. Yes, for argument's sake, video communication is prominent today and that's the next best thing to actual face-to-face contact (such as when family and close friends are hundreds of miles apart). But I think empathy is driven primarily by interactions with people physically and emotionally near to us.
Human (and other) life is sustained through emotional connections. I think over time, many people will realize they'll get that by focusing on those who are directly in front of them. I see beauty in that. I see hope in that.
I leave you with three quotes that I think best drive my admittedly vague but relevant point home:
"To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right." ~Confucius
"There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love." ~Mother Theresa
"If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in." ~Frederick Buechner
Firstly, I have really enjoyed writing these blogs for BSU BlogFest this week, as well as reading many of the other contributors' thoughtful and fun posts. I hope that we can continue this throughout the year perhaps on a weekly basis. Blogging allows for people to reflect and share their ideas in a creative way. It also provides insight into the lives of fellow BSU community members, especially for those of us who may not communicate much with each other outside of the classroom and the workplace. I've definitely appreciated that folks have opened up to the extent they have.
So this final post for the week pertains to "the future." I don't think I'm very good at looking far ahead in time, and that may or may not be a bad thing. I'm kind of limited to being a "one year ahead" sort of guy but no further than that. I suppose that's because I appreciate the idea of leaving many doors open for opportunities that might come my way. Most of my major life decisions have come about purely by chance. I've often initially disregarded an opportunity at first glance but then found that opportunity to be amazing after a second more thorough look. This worldview I hold has something to do with my personality, I'm sure. As a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) aficionado, I can quickly state and explain my type preferences: INFP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving). The first three are fairly self-explanatory, but as a Perceiving type, I tend to go with the flow and let things happen to a certain extent. I just don't feel the need to control everything. By the way, if you ever want to know your type, just ask - I'm a certified MBTI administrator!
But I'll go out on a limb for this blog post and offer up a general somewhat rambling sense of what I think the future might hold for us.
We are generally part of a global community nowadays because social media and the internet make it so easy to be that way. But I'm a strong believer in the idea of a cyclical life. I think within the next twenty years, we may very well find that the concept of a local community -- a village, as Hillary Rodham Clinton would say -- will dominate again.
As the world becomes a much more complicated and complex place, it's getting more difficult for anyone to make broad, sweeping decisions (other than perhaps in the corporate world). That may sound pessimistic, but I don't intend that to be the case. Where greater numbers of individuals might feel socially isolated (ironically) in a social media kind of world, I think we may find folks will return to focusing on relationships on a local level. Why? Because empathy and human connection flourish best with face-to-face communication. Yes, for argument's sake, video communication is prominent today and that's the next best thing to actual face-to-face contact (such as when family and close friends are hundreds of miles apart). But I think empathy is driven primarily by interactions with people physically and emotionally near to us.
Human (and other) life is sustained through emotional connections. I think over time, many people will realize they'll get that by focusing on those who are directly in front of them. I see beauty in that. I see hope in that.
I leave you with three quotes that I think best drive my admittedly vague but relevant point home:
"To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right." ~Confucius
"There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love." ~Mother Theresa
"If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in." ~Frederick Buechner
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