One of my favorite books is “The Art of Living” by Epictetus (the new interpretation by Sharon Lebell).
Epictetus was one of the lesser-known but great philosophers in history whose students included Marcus Aurelius, among others. His teachings rank with those contained in the greatest wisdom literature of human civilization. The Discourses could be thought of as the West’s answer to Buddhism’s Dhammapada or Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Epictetus established an influential school of Stoic philosophy, stressing that human beings cannot control life, only their responses to it.
In reading over a chapter in “The Art of Living” titled Speak Only With Good Purpose it occurred to me that Epictetus might have had a real problem with social media in general, and Twitter specifically. You see Epictetus believed that in order to lead a moral life one needed to perfect ‘right speech’. He said:
First and foremost, think before you speak to make sure you are speaking with good purpose. Glib talk disrespects others. Breezy self-disclosure disrespects yourself. So many people feel compelled to give voice to any passing feeling, thought or impression they have. They randomly dump the contents of their minds without regard to the consequences. This is practically and morally dangerous…Frivolous talk is hurtful talk; besides, it is unbecoming to be a chatterbox.
He went on to say:
It’s not necessary to restrict yourself to lofty subjects or philosophy all the time, but be aware that the common babbling that passes for worthwhile discussion has a corrosive effect on your higher purpose. When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to.
So I ask my Tweets, friends and colleagues who actively participate in and consult marketers on the art and science of social media – what say ye of Epictetus’ wisdom? Are we ourselves becoming trivial because we speak of trivial issues on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and other forums that enable us to post our everyday observations?
Stumble It!
It’s not all trivial, but we’ve added to the complexity of communication as it does take longer to sift through the volume of content to find the value. Like this post.
On My Honest Opinion
yes we are.
mhmm.. can we get an “amen”?
but I’d add a bit of an addendum to this. though the incessant and “trivial” may marginalize us in a way… so does the overly intellectual, officious, ego-intense and self promotional. an obsessive stream of consciousness whether its social, trivial or thoughtful from a business perspective simply becomes noise.
and I’m afraid that whether it a blog, a twitter, or facebook post there’s too many folks clamoring for attention like the headshots of an advertising trade publication, or worse gradeschool pageant contestants wanting center stage.
so let’s not beat up the medium, or the occasional lighthearted show of one’s “real” self. instead let’s self police ourselves to be authentic, thoughtful and minimal. speak when inspiration hits, share an honest moment, or when there is something truly newsworthy. this is where the most successful of our blogging/sm peers have found success. staying true to themselves and being genuinely human in doing so.
[...] of epictetus, brad kay, and tipped off by dave [...]
I am going to pee and have a sandwich.
I like the post and like Andy’s comments. An occasional heartfelt comment or true recommendation is good, along with truly valuable content. I would like to see tighter filters on some fingers.
@mwalsh
This is excellent. I try my best to be at peace with myself and others and notice that some things should be left unsaid when it comes to certain people. I am such an honest person and feel the need for people to hear my thoughts or views on life. I believe I do it to hear a validation of some sort. For someone to say its ok…
At times, its better to know within yourself what’s ok. Consequently we should speak wisely and make sure the things we say are for a good purpose.
Thanks for sharing this…
I agree with this, I was talking to my mother about what Buddha taught in regards to controlling what you say and she said something similar to Epictetus. (its very ironic to see this after I was speaking to my mother about this a few hours ago). She said that he explained how we have a powerful weapon attached to our mouth where we use in such harsh ways sometimes and we get ourselves in trouble because of it, thus giving attention to meaningless things in our lives that we see to be important when it is not. This is just the mere thing that I try immensely to control.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo