The pandemic has proven we will be spending more time on the internet, there will be a lot of digital accelerator programs, and online mentor classes, leveraging on articles, videos, a podcast will always be a means for self-development.
A mentor in a place of learning like social media
One way I would like to introduce the word Mentor here was done my Zig Ziglar and He said "In the entrepreneurship world, mentors art as an adviser, compensated or not." Now, we all know how important this set of awesome persons are on our journey, as we travel with our mission statement in delivering our objectives and achieving our vision. Getting one has been like a journey that we admire the destination and hope we get there soon. The internet has become an integral part of everyday life for many of us, It enhances social interaction, communication, and builds communities. A space with different communities and communications, few friends believe that if you are an active member of any community of interest, you would likely meet a mentor online or offline.What do you think? I would love to read your thoughts in the comment section.
Having a mentor can provide you with many advantages. "Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction." John Crosby.
The internet as a mentor can help to shorten your learning curve, open your mind to new ideas and possibilities, identify opportunities, and advise on how to promote yourself.
Social Media as an environment that mentors
While the time we spent on the Social media is increasing, it is advisable we understand the fact that the social media is an environment just like every other environment that experiences both negative and positive communication, we have to choose our battle so we can carefully choose a weapon and master its technique. The internet "Social Media" is filled with a wide range of topics and conversation, the first step in making its a place where you pick brains, listen, and move in a direction is by choosing your topic of interest.
The tech space is an awesome environment that its setup supports career development, personal promotion, and social network, due to its communities and free learning resources. Our interest in tech and its community is every day been influence by those we admire in the tech space on social media. The internet has been a mentor to us overtime consciously or unconsciously. Hashnode, Facebook Communities, Twitter, Slack, Reddit, Blog post, and Podcast among others have been the platform (Communities) we experience our mentoring session as I may call it. Accelerator (Digital) programs and Bootcamps have their way to increase our confidence and involvement in open source activities. With the Four Industrial Revolutions on the move, the internet environment has become more educative and at the same time, it could be distractive.
Fear of Social Media (Internet) Distraction
Often times we set out to search for something on the internet, we tend to open more tabs on our devices, while we read through each tab to actually find that which we seek for, we bump into something even more intriguing and veer off in that direction. This often seems as our habit most times, even while visiting twitter it is possible to be distracted by other tweets that are not our topic of interest.
According to Beckett Frith in a publication on hrmagazine, "Instant messaging app WhatsApp was found to be the most distracting platform in the survey of 2,000 people, with 72% of workers chatting with their friends on it when they should be working. It was closely followed by Facebook, which distracts 70% of workers, while Instagram (49%), Twitter (41%), and Snapchat (30%) were also named as common workplace distractions." if this is true for workplace then it has an influence on us as an individual.
But, this is the same social media platform that could as well serve as a mentor, How? one of my favorite functions on twitter is the ability to choose and follow your topic of interest and google likewise others follow this same step in personalizing users' activity. "These tools grow more powerful all the time as new advances in algorithmic technologies and artificial intelligence are integrated" into the Content Space.Dipayan Ghosh and Ben Scott talk about this more in their post about DigitalDeciet
Why It Doesn't Seem Difficulty In Getting A Mentor
I can’t tell if it is difficult in getting a mentor or not because I don’t have one yet, what am sure of is this, while it doesn’t seem difficult for me to locate a mentor on this path of life, I believe it is the social media. And Samy Dindane said this “Social media is widening the gap between those who will stay average and those who will rise to the top. You can either use it to scroll other people’s (fake) lives & share memes. Or leverage it to learn new skills, build a network, help people & improve your quality of life”. With tools like Social media management services (SMMS), Search engine optimization (SEO), and GPS location tracking on modern smartphones, with how fast artificial intelligence is been adopted, sooner or now our social media existence will be a reflection of our activities and connection.
This has widened the need for more online communities and community managers, development, and distribution of content. Indeed the social media have grown into our personal mentor.
Thank you for your time, It never hurts to ask someone to share an article if it resonated with her/him.