Inconceivable

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it does.

Social media has come a long way since Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter (I’m not calling it X. That’s a stupid name) posted “just setting up my twttr”, and the Harvard students’ simple profiles on the first Facebook. Like most things, it’s been both awful and joyful.

In their earlier days, Facebook and Instagram were pretty cool for sharing pictures and updates, news and views between friends. Now they’re all adverts and reels, and what I get to see is fewer of my mates’ holiday snaps, and more reels about rugby, food, and history podcasts – the algorithm knows me well – although I don’t even get the cat videos anymore.

I don’t have a Twitter account anymore. I ditched it because it got so toxic, but also irrelevant. I was seeing nothing from the accounts I chose to follow, but masses from accounts that the algorithm had decided I must be interested in. Also, I didn’t see why the richest person in the universe needed any more help from me to get richer.

LinkedIn too, has evolved from a simple business networking platform into a, well I’m not sure what to call it these days. It’s impossible to find anything; unless you save a post immediately, it’s gone forever, especially if it’s by someone who you’re not connected to, and you’re only seeing it because one of your contacts clicked Like on it. And, let’s face it, how many of you click Like without even reading the post, just for traffic? There’s also a rather Facebook-y number of private-life posts (guilty of that on occasion, I admit), and “here-I-am, drinking my coffee, taking-in-the-scenery-loving-my-life” selfies, creeping in.

That said, it is good to know that the people you deal with in your work life have more to them than their work persona, that they are more than just your customer or your supplier. The best business relationships are those that understand we are more than the sum of our buying and selling. Likewise, it’s a great platform for letting the industry know that things haven’t worked out in the business, and that you are, as the phrase has it, Open To Work. When that happens, there can be a huge amount of support and help.  This is when it comes into its own.

However. A few things I think it would be good to remember, as we fully enter into the season of goodwill and celebration:

1. Linkedin is a public forum, accessible to anyone who can remember their password
2. No-one, unless they are an out-and-out crook, goes into business expecting or wanting it to fail.
3. People make decisions based on the knowledge they have at the time. When circumstances change, those decisions may turn out not to have been the wisest ones.
4. Sometimes people are the public face of other people’s decisions.
5. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions on stuff that happens, but very few have all the facts, and the view of the whole picture.
6. It’s easy to hide behind the keyboard and forget that words can hurt, and that the story is always bigger and more complex than it appears at first.
7. Some conversations are best held in person, over coffee or a pint, and not on a public forum.
8. When it doubt, remember Tennyson: Kind hearts are more than coronets

Had I written this last week when something sparked my ire on LinkedIn, this would have been a rather different piece, much angrier. Since then though, stuff has happened, putting things into perspective.

When I think of Bondi Beach, I think of my friends in Sydney heading out there to celebrate on Christmas Day. Not 15 people gunned down as they attend a Chanukah celebration on one of the most iconic beaches in the world. My heart goes out to all of those involved, the victims, the survivors and their relatives and friends.

The director of two of my favourite films was murdered, with his wife, Michelle Singer, in their own home on Sunday. Their son has been charged with it.

Rob Reiner took the near-perfect scripts of William Goldman, and Nora Ephron, and honed them into the classic films The Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally. There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t quote, or think about, a line from one of those films. RIP: Rob and Michelle