In the digital age, social media hasn’t just become a norm, but a non-negotiable. Social media is used to start businesses, secure jobs and find your life partner. Social media has made the world smaller thus making it possible for a 28 year told from South London to get spotted and asked to speak at a conference in Las Vegas, however, there are a number of things that without knowing it, are chipping away at our ability to communicate.
We are all familiar with emojis, they are the new way to express “how you feel”. There is seemingly an emoji for every feeling you have that can help you covey your thoughts and emotions. An interesting phenomenon is occurring right before our eyes, it is much harder to try and articulate your thoughts in the digital age simply because we no longer do it as much. Often, when people ask us how we feel or if we want to convey a message in a specific tone, we rely on the assistance of emojis to help the reader understand “what we mean”.
Social media has also popularised the term “fake it, till you make it”. While this may be an effective tactic in some aspects of your life, that certainly isn’t the case when it comes to speaking. At our transformational public speaking workshops, we run an exercise called “Authentic mindfulness” – the idea of this exercise is articulate as best you can how you are feeling in this moment. The challenge is that you are not allowed to speak about the past (how you usually feel) or the future (how you aspire to feel), with the focus solely on how you feel right now. Do you want to know the truth? That exercise is designed to make you feel nervous, so anything other than “I am feeling a bit nervous” is abnormal. One day there was a gentleman who look visibly nervous: he was fidgeting with his hands, was pacing up and down quickly and couldn’t maintain eye contact with the crown, when asked “how do you feel at the moment” he replied “yeahh, I feel good”, surprised, I replied “really? so, why are you fidgeting with your hands and pacing up and down” he replied “because every is looking at me” I then said “well, how does that feel? All eyes on you, nothing to say… does it feel good?” He finally admitted “you know what, I feel nervous… I was just putting on a front” – BINGO! If you want to overcome your fear of public speaking you cannot “fake it, till you make it”. Faking it means you are not addressing the problem. If you are anxious and pretend not to be, put on a “brave mask” and give off a confident personal, you not address the real challenge., you are not identifying your triggers and therefore can never improve. Getting nervous but pretending it is all OK is like seeing your dashboard light up with warnings from your car, but ignoring them because “everything will be OK”… the truth is, it is only a matter of time until the big breakdown.
Social media is having a big effect on many aspects of out daily lives & public speaking is no different
Ready to Elevate Your Career?
Join our public speaking classes and take the first step toward mastering the art of communication. Whether you’re looking to advance in your current role or explore new career opportunities, our programs will equip you with the skills you need to succeed.
Sign Up for Our Public Speaking Classes Today
Believe in your greatness, and let us help you achieve it.
