Awards

It’s that time of year when the award ceremonies are taking place in the world of celebrities. The Baftas, The Grammys, The Oscars etc.

But we also have awards closer to home. Business awards, County awards, Industry awards in every single industry sector and of course then there are personal awards, awards given out by The Queen.

And really what does it actually all mean?

Does your popularity rise?

Do you earn more money?

Are you able to get a table faster at your favourite restaurant?

Will you be admired by your peers, who may aspire to be like you instead of themselves?

And what about the losers? The ones that were nominated to keep the suspense alive, but missed out on the night. What about them? Are they any less worthy?

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

I have been invited to many award ceremonies in Birmingham, I’ve even been given free tickets and apart from when something genuinely came up, I have avoided them all. I was even nominated for one and still didn’t go.

I feel that it creates a divide in society, it shows us that some in society are actually better than you, have achieved more than you. It doesn’t mean that the awarded individual or organisation is bad, of course they are not, but do they really need the award to make them feel better about themselves?

Is it proof that they are more worthy of recognition compared to the ones who were nominated but lost out? We never remember those that were nominated and still some of those will include this statistic on their profiles, their websites and in their bios.

‘Nominated for blogger of the year’.

Nominated means you lost, so why even promote it! Well, you were in the running so that’s also special. It means your peers who were never in the running are the real losers. They might as well pack up and go home, because they never stood a chance anyway.

Happy awarding!

Michael de Groot

Millennial

We’ve all been labelled by society in one way or another depending on which decade or range of decades we were born in.

Even the decades that describe Millennials have been disputed and some have even decided different ranges. The USA Census Bureau believe it to be 1982–2000, basically the decades of the 80’s and the 90's.

So a Millennial born in ’82 is going to be 36 this year!

Wow and I thought Millennials were just folks in their 20's.

Both my stepsons are millennials and don’t I know it. They appear to have been born with mobile phones in their hands. It’s not my intention to judge either of them and I’m not going into detail on both of them except to say that I will be fascinated to see what long term jobs they end up in. Of course there’s no such thing as long term job any longer in fact it wasn’t even when I was working.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo0KjdDJr1c[/embed]

As I ponder how Millennials may impact the place of work, I’m seeing gaming rooms instead of table tennis tables, I’m seeing working hours stretched and redefined, home working for parents becoming common place and values/coolness being the biggest reasons why they may decide to join your company.

More insights on Millennials can be found on Wikipedia and I have to say it’s frighteningly accurate especially the Peter Pan concept, because of the members’ perceived tendency for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood for longer periods than most generations before them.

[embed]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials#Workplace_attitudes[/embed]

By 2020, potentially 50% of the workforce will be made up of Millennials. We better have flexible working practices in place to get the most out of them.

Happy Snapping!

Michael de Groot

Social

Social Media has managed to infiltrate every part of humanity, whether it be exposing our own personal lives or real time comments from the US President, it has become part of the fabric of society.

There are many good things that have been derived from Social Media and one of those has been the way that people from all over the world have connected to each other, families have become closer or have they?

Parents and grandparents are snooping on kids and grandchildren, or maybe they are just curious and feel closer to what they are doing in their lives?

There was a time when Social first came out that a lot of folks were saying things like ‘Why do I want to know what they’ve had for lunch?’ or ‘I have no interest in knowing every part of what they are doing in their lives!’.

Actually we’ve all become incredibly curious (nosey) about our connections and what they’re up to, to the point that we are thumbing through feeds with lightening speed, trying to catch a glimpse of news that may satisfy our curiosity and interest.

The truth is our curiosity will never ever be satisfied, we never say, oh good that post I just liked or commented on is enough for today, that will keep me going until tomorrow. We instantly look for the next post, image or video to satisfy or need.

Sad but true.

We are driving ourselves into Social Oblivion to a place where we eventually may need help to rid ourselves of our addiction to Social Media.

A few worrying statistics on Facebook. As of the third quarter of 2017, Facebook had 2.07 billion monthly active users. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had surpassed 1 billion, making it the first social network ever to do so. Active users are those which have logged in to Facebook during the last 30 days.

You may wish to consider deleting the Facebook app from your smartphone, it will give you at least an extra hour per day, if not more. I’m not suggesting removing yourself as Social Media these days is now an essential part of your identity.

Happy posting!

Michael de Groot