Have you been in meetings where everyone brings their laptop and cell phone?  Regardless of what is happening, someone is always distracted on the other side of that screen.  Typing away or something.  Then the phone rings (not on vibrate mode) and another person answers it or excuses himself to answer it.  What?

I remember meetings where there was no electronics in them what-so-ever.  Now, I work in Information Technology and I understand the benefit from what technology can bring to all of us, but I think we are drifting ever so closer to this social facade that acts like real social connections, but without the depth of the real thing.

Nature is full of these impostors.  Mushrooms are a great example.  There is the morel, which is like gold for mushroom hunters and the ever present false morel.  I good copy-cat but extremely toxic.  Then there is the Monarch butterfly and the Viceroy butterfly.  The Monarch is toxic to eat so the Viceroy disguises himself to look like a Monarch for protection.  You should know the difference.  One brings great benefits, one brings great sorrow.  If you did not know to look for the difference you would treat them both equally.  Look at the two butterflies above.  They are hard to tell apart.

So what does this have to do with meetings?  The creep of this busyness wrapped up in technology has disguised itself as a form of social connectedness that is really an impostor.  When we have the opportunity to really connect, face-to-face, we still are drawn to our technical gadgets.  We keep sliding in the wrong direction.  Quick sound bites, interruptions,  phones ringing in meetings, staying connected at all times.

Let’s all get back to the decorum, manners, and etiquette that we once held in great value.  Let’s connect face-to-face by putting away the distractions.  Let’s have depth in our relationships as compared to breadth.  And, let’s be on alert to recognize those things that slowly creep into our lives promising more and leaving us with less.