One or the Other or Both

I know it's been a while since I posted and I'm sorry but I tried something this summer, an expirement if you will, and based on the results this experiment would show me where I would go with the blog. I made the decision sometime in April or May that it would have to be either, or but it can't be both! I would either make an effort to do some face to face contact which would mean no electronic social media help (blogs, facebook twitter etc...) OR really focus on social media and cut back on my face to face contact. The decision was made, face to face was the way to go after all it was more personal, more hands on and from what I thought a better way to go. Problem was that, it was more work, more time away from family and friends but mostly it was less efficient. I couldn't reach 1/10 of the people I would have reached using the social media. I could only be in 1 place at a time. It was awesome spending time with that person but then I had others wondering what was going or why I didn't get a hold of them or hung out with them. Something else I noticed is how much I missed out by not being part of that social media, I missed class reunions, birthday parties and nights out with old friends that I haven't seen in years. Where was this happening you ask, well, invites posted on my wall, tweets sent to me directly and emails forwarded to an address that I don't check very often. But as much as I missed out I can't stop meeting people and make the same mistake by going all electronic social media. I can't live in a virtual world connecting and making friends with people I don't even know. I can't spend my days with my face in my laptop tweeting every little thing I do or could have done and let the world pass me by. So what can I do?
I think the word I'm looking for is balance! It doesn't have to be EITHER, OR it can and needs to be BOTH! I need to find a happy medium but how? That's the real question how do we get that healthy middle? How can I stay connected with people and yet still make time for family and friends. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try different things with this blog, my Facebook account and my twitter and hopefully I'll be able to find a happy middle. Starting this Friday and going all weekend I'm doing a technology and social media black out and I'm going to write out (that's right you saw correctly write out) an action plan to try and find a way to use both face to face time and social media. Can it be done, yes it can, how well that's the real question. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have better direction, clear focus and a renewed heart.

Thanks for you patience and look forward to hearing from you.

Marty