While I write many blogs and other types of content throughout the week, the Weekly Column is my weekly feature topic, which will also be the basis of my weekly radio show and #dadchat. Posted on Sunday night or Monday morning, they are a great way to start off your week with something to think about, as well as something to talk about.
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Call me an old fart…but just call me back! Yipes, what has happened to doing business today? Are these so-called “Best Practices” really best at all? I thought it was flaky back in my showbiz days – before email, texts, smart-phones, computers, and all the tech that is supposed to “connect” us. Yes, email began during my tenure in “the biz” but cell-phones were basic and real phone calls were the bread and butter of doing business. Our Best Practices were called courtesy and hard work!
There’s no question that I’m addicted to skiing. Happily, it’s been a healthy love affair. And, lucky for me, I’ve had the opportunity to ski far and wide, from heli-skiing at the infamous Bugaboos in British Columbia to skiing in Chamonix and Zermatt. But, without a doubt, the best skiing and snow in the world is right here at home. And, with a recent move, I’ve discovered the ski resort of my dreams in Canyons Resort in Utah.
There’s no doubt that there will be more and more columns, magazine covers, and television coverage of the affects of technology on our lives. Our kids have grown up in a smart-phone tech world and know nothing other than that reality. We all now have what I call virtual friends, those “friends” that we actually consider friends but that we’ve actually never met or even spoken with. When I was kid that was the stuff of science fiction. So, it was inevitable that some of us would get addicted to our tech, to Social Media, and the devices we seem to cherish.
I know a lot about Rock n Roll, but my range in other music is limited. A new friend who is completely into Hip Hop and Rap has introduced me to such artists as Kanye West, Drake, Rihanna, Lil Wayne, and Nicki Minaj, Jay Z, and others whose names I’d heard but whose music was alien to me. Other than many of the lyrical choices, which I find demeaning to both men and women, I was surprised how creative and good much of the music really was!
When I grew up there were coffee shops, not places that more or less exclusively served coffee and snacks. Coffee shops were diners and casual restaurants, which often had counters with stools for individuals. There was a local chain of them in our area that my family loved to frequent. Now, it’s fast food and Starbuck’s. But does a cup of coffee mean communication or just a cup ‘o joe while surfing the web, sitting alone, and isolated? Is it just the older retired people who actually meet at the local coffee spot to talk and people watch?
Do you have Social Media Anxiety? Or Smart Phone Anxiety? A friend told me a story the other day that I related to and I wonder how many others will as well? This friend is a ski buddy. He told me that he arrived at The Canyons Ski Resort where we ski (in Utah), parked, got on the gondola, and was excited and ready to go skiing. Checking for his smart-phone, he discovered it wasn’t there. He patted every conceivable pocket and then began to panic. Hello Social Media Anxiety! Hello Smart Phone Anxiety, to be more specific! Where is Oprah when we need her?
Yes, panic.
I had a discussion the other day with a young woman friend who said she preferred dating older men because the guys her age were only interested in one thing. Ironically it was the guys that either were not interested or feigned disinterest that attracted her the most. I was struck by the irony of her statement, though I was sure it was true for her and many other of her contemporaries. Like the song said, “Love is strange.”
