{"id":192,"date":"2009-11-09T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-09T13:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/career-advice\/pop-your-bubble\/"},"modified":"2019-11-16T09:30:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-16T17:30:14","slug":"pop-your-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/pop-your-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop Your Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gayle Hallgren-Rezac and Darcy Rezac<\/p>\n

\"POP_YOUR_BUBBLE\"<\/p>\n

Our columns at BC Jobs<\/a> focus on using networking to get a job or put you on the right trajectory for your career path. But recent research published in the prestigious journal Biologist found that the number of hours per day humans interact has fallen by two thirds in recent decades, from 6 hours in 1987 to 2 hours in 2007. Walt Kelly\u2019s famous quote,”We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us<\/em>” seems very appropriate. We are addicted to our devices, our \u2018CrackBerries\u2019, iPhones and multifunction cell phones. The result is we are all walking around in these weird personal bubbles. Yes, we are making more face-to-screen connections, but fewer face-to-face.<\/p>\n

You could argue that \u201cI can talk to more people, have shorter messages and do it 24\/7 around the world with face-to-screen contact.\u201d\u00a0 But here\u2019s what happens, we move through the world in a bubble, tuned out to the people around us.\u00a0 A typical example is how people travel from point A to B.\u00a0 They leave their house, get in a cab and get on their cell phone.\u00a0 They get to the airport and check in. Most times there\u2019s never a real conversation\u2014unless it is WestJet.\u00a0 As they walk through the airport they have their phone glued to their ear. Once on the aircraft, they nod to the person next to them and open their laptop and never say another word. They get off the plane, travel through the airport phone attached to ear and into a cab, texting.\u00a0 The first time they really say anything to anyone is when they are at their destination.\u00a0 This process could have taken 12 to 18 hours and never once was real contact made\u00a0 with another human being.\u00a0 Pretty amazing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You may be saying, so what?\u00a0 Are you really going to have an authentic connection<\/a> with someone when you are trying to get from A to B?\u00a0 The number of stories we hear suggests that the answer is yes; it matters!\u00a0 Here are just a couple of true stories.<\/div>\n

A woman starts up a conversation with her seatmate and subsequently she is asked to join the board of directors of her seatmate\u2019s company.\u00a0 A few years later she becomes chair of this company\u2014a large multinational pipeline.\u00a0 Would it have happened if she hadn\u2019t started that conversation?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

A woman is standing in line at one of the ubiquitous airport Tim Hortons coffee shops.\u00a0 She steps on the foot of the guy behind her. She feels bad and wants to buy his coffee for him.\u00a0 Fast forward: they are now married.<\/p>\n

So best advice: become more aware of The Bubble. Pop it more often and see what happens when you engage another person in conversation.\u00a0 Keep one other thought in the back of your mind and it\u2019s that once to engage another person you have just connected with their network<\/a>. Imagine the potential! A recent article on “How to Make Your Own Luck” by Ben Sherwood describes the exponential potential this way: \u201cA typical person knows about 300 people on a first-name basis. So if you go to a party and meet someone new, he explains, you’re “only two handshakes away from 300 times 300 people; that’s 90,000 new possibilities for a new opportunity, just by saying hello.”
\nPop it!
\nRelated to Pop Your Bubble<\/strong><\/p>\n