Great Wall Graffiti Shouts Look at Me

My mother had a saying: Fools names and fools faces always appear in public places. She referred to graffiti. Not the artistic work we see on rail cars or viaducts but the "John loves Sally" or "Sam was here" kind of stuff you find in bathrooms or on historical monuments.

There wasn't so much of it when I was a kid. Now it seems nearly everyone is painting their name onto something.  Why? Do we feel so important that our names deserve to be on the Great Wall of China (read more about that here) or do we feel so ignored that we deface great works of art in order to draw attention to ourselves?  What does scratching our names onto surfaces say about us?  What are we trying to tell others?

The news story about the Chinese reserving a section of the Great Wall for graffiti saddened me. It implies that we are so focused on self that we feel entitled to destroy a centuries-old marvel. The problem exists elsewhere of course. Look at the bridges in Paris that are covered with padlocks, rusting away and destroying the lovely views. Those locks are not an expression of love, which is selfless. They are another form of ego. They say, "Look at us, we're a couple."

Communication is a funny thing. There is more and more of it today than ever and perhaps that's the problem. Does our ability to communicate with the whole world make us feel small and insignificant? Do Facebook, about.me, Twitter, and all the others somehow rob us of our sense of self? 

Let me ponder that while I carve my initials into this rock.

Too Much Communication?

In my last post, I praised email because it is uniquely suited to a specific communication need. That got me thinking about the recent history of various forms of communication that I routinely use.

I am just old enough to remember when the technological advance called a fax machine appeared. It was a giant leap forward and many businesses resisted the expense. Little did we know that form of “instant” communication in the early 1990’s – not even twenty years ago – would lead to people staying connected via email or cell phone – even when on vacation.

As technology takes us down new roads, I look at the way we conduct business and shake my head. Business managed just fine when the fastest form of written communication we had was the fax machine. Is business doing any better now that we are constantly connected to one another? Are American companies healthier and more stable with the advent of instant communication? I think not.

As a society, Americans have convinced themselves that inactivity is evil. If we are not doing something every minute, we must be slackers. So we show everyone how hard we are working by making calls, writing lots of emails and sending text messages.

There is a problem however. All this communicating leaves little time for thinking. If we do not reflect on our business, we cannot change it to meet new challenges. Years ago, Toyota saw the need for a hybrid car but GM did not. How many GM managers were furiously downloading emails to their cell phones back then instead of thinking about the future marketplace and its desire for a Prius?

Perhaps we would do well to dust off the fax machine. Or better yet - smoke signals anyone?