Someone to Tell It To

Judging by the astonishing popularity of facebook and the fact that people everywhere are constantly talking, texting, tweeting, I would say it's possible Maslow forgot something in his hierarchy of needs - someone to tell it to.

I’ll bet you know who yours is, the first person you call when you want to tell about something that happened or share an insight.

I suspended my rant, “Don’t people talk to one another anymore?” long enough to notice they are talking to one another perhaps more than ever before. I believe it comes from a deep and abiding need for connection.

The internet offers us a vast menu of sharing options. We can share with the general public, only with friends, or include friends of friends. We can share long soliloquies, updates of only 140 characters, or anything in between. We can share photos and playlists - and share we do, 1.26 billion of us on facebook alone. 

Since cell phones and social media make it so easy to find someone to tell it to, the danger is that we’ll overlook the people we are actually with. The greatest gift we can give anyone is to be fully present. There’s no app for that.