Wednesday, September 27, 2017

The Pros and Cons of Making (Internet) Connections



(This blog was originally posted on August 2, 2016)


Photo by Rick Hustead






My original “goal” for communicating on social media was for services like Twitter and Facebook to help me market my services as a hypnotherapist. To be honest, I was initially very reluctant to join either of those services. It seemed like a false and impersonal way to get my message out, let alone explain and assuage doubts about what hypnotherapy can do to help a person achieve self-improvement goals. A lot has changed.
My website, www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com, does the majority of “explanation” heavy-lifting for me. However, social media has been very beneficial in helping me introduce myself and what I do to a worldwide audience and market new hypnotherapy skills and promotional offers. It has also enabled me to become socially active in causes about which I am passionate—such as animal conservation, anti-poaching and helping to rehome shelter animals—as well as connect with very good friends. In fact, I have never even met some of my on-line friends.
Before the advent of social media, interpersonal connections were made in the course of face-to-face encounters, introductions through mutual contacts and well-placed advertisements in newspapers and magazines. These days, entire populations of potential contacts are available at the touch of a button on a computer or SmartPhone. It has truly never been easier to make a potentially career-altering connection.
Indeed, there is a caveat to the benefits of having such widespread and easy access. Social media is that these various outlets offer a chance to express any and all feelings you want to share without offering an option or warning to take a time-out before pressing that “send” button. Unlike face-to-face or even voice-to-voice communication in which you have a chance to perceive nuances in language and expression, there is no or very little opportunity to make this kind of interpretation in 140 typed characters. (Facebook does provide the option to use emojis to support the emotions behind the sentiment the writer is trying to convey.) As Dr. Alex Kappas liked to say, “I know you believe you think you understand what I have just said; but I am not sure that what you heard is not what I meant.” Indeed, during the course of a passionate written exchange it is easy to lose track of the emotions and words that are being expressed and leave a long-lasting, sometimes negative, impression that overshadows the original intent of the message.


Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2017