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Yesterday, the unspeakable of happened!! It was a terrifying experience...

"I Forgot my Mobile Phone at home !!!!!!"

I went on for close to Nine long hours without a whatsapp or viber or text message, no recollection whatsoever of any of my contacts' phone number...Can you just imagine the sheer terror that I lived in!! I even went nineties style and called the operator to get a colleague's number! then shame on me, used the land line (please don't judge!) to call him.

Then guess what! This terror slowly turned into anticipation, and a bit later into excitement, as I was thinking to myself, "how many whatsapp messages am I going to find when I get back?", "Did (that person) call?", "Did she worry about me?", "What if I didn't find a message from her? Does that mean she doesn't give a damn!?"

For those who are intrigued of what I found on my phone when I got back home....I say "This is personal "

The point that I started to think about, when my phone wasn't with me and no messages were flowing and I wasn't able to send any out, "What exactly is our social worth?"

Is it the number of followers you have on Twitter, or the friends on Facebook or what?

Is it the active friends who like your posts? Is it the number of comments floating!?

I took the liberty of drafting what I called "The Social Balance Sheet!" and before any of the accountants start drilling holes in it, it is not based on International Financial Reporting Standards, so relax

Seriously, have a look at it and think about this, if you take your Social Balance Sheet and go to your Grandfather and tell him "proudly" if I may add how many friends and followers you have, I would bet that his answer would be:

"If you have all these friends, how come I always see you at home sitting in front of your computer or that flat screen that you carry around?"

It's true, the meaning of friendship has been diluted these days, I used to call a friend a friend when I could count on him or her in case of an emergency! Can you say the same about your "social connections"? Now it is a form of punishment to unfriend someone, or God forbid refuse a friend request or limit their access to your profile! Blasphemy!!

Going back to the balance sheet above, can you really associate a dollar value for your network? (and I am not talking about the advertisement income etc..). I look at my Linkedin connections and I believe that the percentage of those that I have met at least once in my life doesn't exceed 20% and that of those who I am still in touch doesn't exceed 10% of the total connections.

So I was thinking to myself, why don't I try to meet up with as many of those as possible and have a cup of coffee...

Blasphemy again! I told you I'm so nineties! Do you think it will work?

At the outset, if the connection is a business owner, he/she will think you are after a job?

If you are a guy approaching a girl she'll think you are hitting on her? If she is approaching you, then you think she is interested in you!

I believe that people are becoming comfortable hiding in virtual cocoons, surrounded by followers and admired by friends... who they don't know!

I don't want to make this too long for you, but I would really ask you to reflect on your perceived social value, and how real is it?

Also there is no harm in trying to convert the virtual network into a real life network

At this note, I wish you a lovely weekend and stay in touch,

Cheers,
By Maher Tarazi