People using social media are often criticised for focussing too much on the numbers. Personally I don’t feel that there is a right or wrong way of networking but for some reason there is a fixation about the numbers involved. Well my attitude is – get over it – numbers are just a measure, a tool to give us some indication on how things are working or not.
Human beings need boxes in which to file things. We have an inherent craving to have parameters and guidelines to tell us whether we are doing well or not . It comes from an instinctive need for survival. If there is not enough food stored in the cave for the clan to last the winter then the size of the community will diminish – not good for long term survival.
Numbers are used to tackle issues of fitness and health. Ideal weight measures for ideal height and build – all measured in numbers. Let’s face it, did Pippa’s perfect bottom become famous because of hip measurement?
Cholesterol levels, blood pressure, heart rate, the distance we can see, the distance we run, the number of breaths we take and so on. All of these are measured using one set of numbers or another. Some need to be bigger – others smaller. We are TOLD to focus on the numbers. But NONE of them help us to listen to our bodies and ascertain how we FEEL and what our body says it needs to restore itself. The government initiative of “Five-a-Day” is NO indication of which are the best fruit & veg for YOU as an individual with different lifestyles, habits and bodily requirements.
The size of our wallet or bank account is often an indicator of where we fit in the world. But how often do people we know fake their successes by buying things on HP and never actually owning anything outright? The trouble with that is that if we fool the Jones’s next door then we are actually in danger of fooling ourselves too. And …. I don’t think that our bank managers and accountants would be very happy if we did not take notice of the numbers – do you?
Numbers infiltrate our lives everywhere. High school grades, tests, exams, salaries, badges, awards and brownie points are all indicators showing where we belong in the world. Sales figures, viewing stats, visitor numbers, gross profits (or losses), nett profits (or losses) turnover, percentages, degrees, angles, distance, height, weight, mass, mean, medians, averages, fractions, decimal places, and algebraic equations are all about the numbers. But what do any of them really tell us?
And ….. then there is time………….. Age, aging, aged. Slow time. Quick time. Play time. Quiet time. Work time. Day time. Night time. Millennia, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds and so on ….. to the macro, micro and nano – everything is measured in numbers.
None of them are a measure of how successful, sexy and attractive we are. You would be seriously deluded if you thought so. but I do think they can at least give us an insight into what into what we are doing and how well we are doing it.
We should learn to USE the numbers. PLAY them to get the results that we want to achieve and not let the numbers use us to become a set of statistics.
What do you think? What numbers are ruling your decisions today?