On boxing day I was flipping through the NZ Herald when an article taken from the Arizona Daily Star caught my eye: “High-tech lifestyle steals serendipity”.
The article opens with “Serendipity: In its essence it’s that “aha!” moment of glad and unexpected discovery. It’s an unplanned happenstance that leads to a piece of good luck, or news or insight”.
The gist of the article is that a wealth of information creates a deficit of attention. As a result of information overload we become trapped in a never-ending rabbit hole of our own choosing. We only read things that are relevant to us and only talk to people in our industry or niche – thereby losing the serendipity in life.
It poses questions like: When was the last time you browsed the shelves in a library looking for one book, only to discover another that was more intriguing?
What a load of Bollocks!
What about the “real world” encounters that wouldn’t have happened without online interaction. How many new friends, books, posts, videos, photo’s, stories, ideas and links have you come across simply because you’re connected with people through some sort tech based platform?
Real people have a diverse range of interests that you cannot hide from, whether they’re online or not.
It’s true that I am now able to read more information about my niche (new media & marketing) than ever before, and yes I am further down my rabbit hole than I otherwise would be. But the diversity of both ideas and people I now have access to are unbelievable!
The reason TEDTalks are so powerful is in no small part because “all knowledge is connected”. So if you’re open to new ideas you’re going to find serendipity both online and offline. But if you’re really looking for that moment of kismet, the online world is where you need to be.
Social Media Turbo-charges Serendipity!
Twitter - The 2000+ people I follow on twitter provide me with a diverse range of information, insight and ideas. Even if I wanted to box myself into the world of social media the fact that a large proportion of the tweeps I interact with are “real people” means that at some point they’re going to tweet about something other than social media.
Facebook – Like many people my age facebook is mostly personal crap, like photo’s of your dog and updates about what you’ve eaten for breakfast etc. But the fact that I have 500+ “friends” who again have a very diverse range of interests means that they’re fans of all sorts of weird and wacky pages, and they post links about all sorts of stuff that I never would have found on my own.
Linkedin – While Linkedin is no where near as powerful as FB and Twitter for information sharing, it still has it’s moments of pure happenstance. Just as Mitch Joel’s book describes “The truth is, we no longer live in a world of six degrees of separation. In fact, we’re now down to only six pixels of separation, which changes everything we know about doing business”. The sort of connectivity in the professional world that Linkedin has sparked continually brings about new business relationships, just check out their success stories.
Taking your zest-less offline world into social media might just give you that serendipitous kick you’ve been craving.
It’s easier said than done, but if the last year has taught me anything, it’s that the online world is definitely amplified when you can connect with tweeps and transfer ideas into the offline world. The more you can do this the more tangible that serendipitous kick will feel.
