I’ve been actively practicing both social media and Kundalini yoga for 3 years now. I don’t believe in coincidence, and see my life as one path. When people talk about the effect social media is having on our lives –relationships, careers, business, friendships, love, personal freedom – I can’t help but think about my yoga teacher who often quotes Yogi Bhajan and his description of The Aquarian Age qualities:
“We have always experienced CHANGE, but rarely with this intensity and speed and never with this scope and vastness. This change is radical, not incremental. It is a simultaneous change in both outer and inner worlds. The mind is changing its sensitivity, its basic frequency and functioning. Our lifestyle is changing its sense of time, space, relatedness, and relevancy.”
“In the PISCEAN AGE that we are leaving behind, it was a central and even sacred task to find and gain access to the right information. The motto of the age was “to be or not to be.” Learn, grow, and become something. Great knowledge about human potential was guarded by secrecy and layers of initiations. The Piscean Age was dominated by machines and hierarchies. As the Aquarian Age dawns, the old defenses and manipulations based on hiding and controlling access to information will no longer work. “
“The new AQUARIAN AGE is ruled by awareness, information, and energy. In the Aquarian Age there are no secrets! Information is available. Finding it is not the central task any longer. In this Age, the motto is “be to be.” Real value will come from truth embodied in practical actions and in the internal caliber and qualities of your mind and heart. The greatest power will be your Word – your consciously projected words.(Source)
Do you sense the connection? Let me analyze deeper these two processes happening simultaneously at this very moment.
1. Disorientation and chaos as a result of breaking the old rules.
In the Aquarian Age: “We break free of centuries of false doctrines, destructive indoctrinations, absurd ideas, and children’s stories about God, education, medicine, and love.” (Source)
Challenge: Look at the challenges big old corporations are facing – from online identity crisis to the inability to control their own brand message and manage their employee’s online activities. Old rules of marketing, customer service and management simply don’t work in the new age of social media.
Outcome: Companies will have to let go their “codes of ethics” and “identity guides” and realize their only value is in people who are powering their product (employees) and using it (customers). They will have to find ways to empower, connect and create transformative experiences for both of these groups.
Social Media Connection: Instead of spending energy on defining their rules smart companies tune into social media channels and try to listen to their passionate customers. They understand that their customers are the only thing that matters at this point.
2. No more secrets.
In the Aquarian Age: “There is more of an openness, rather than keeping things hidden. Exposing those deep dark hidden nefarious secrets of churches and governments, for example, which have harmed many people, is an example of Aquarian energy.This is one of the factors that is contributing to the dissolution of these secretive tightly held hierarchical organizations which are based on fear. These organizations are cults and members exhibit cult like behaviors. Unless they change, they will be unable to remain in the Aquarian energies.As they are currently disharmonious with the Aquarian energies, they will crumble.” (Source)
Challenge:It gets harder to control the message in the age when information is free and easily accessible. It is hard to control the sources of information, when everyone is a source.
Outcome: Analyzing the recent news stories you can see that a large portion of them are dealing with the revealing of the dark secrets of various public figures, celebrities, brands or authorities. Right now, these stories generate public interest and money, so there is even more incentive to get them out. But at some point our mind will stop considering them as outrageous, secrets will lose their appeal.
Social Media Connection: The virality of social media makes it practically impossible to keep secrets. Almost every moment of our lives is documented by someone else, and the only way to react is let it go. Let your secrets out, and live your live open, or you will find yourself constantly challenged.
3. No more hidden agendas in relationships.
In the Aquarian Age: “Friendship bursts upon us in its most elevated sense, in its most noble aspect — with understanding, collaboration, and fraternity. Love and friendship will have nothing to do with possessing or ego. The idea of love meaning “you belong to me” ends in the New Age. The thought of friends of convenience, friendship based on an ulterior motive such as business ends. Love and friendship based on anything other than pure love, […] changes the sentiment into a coin of exchange — you no longer have love or friendship because of who you are, but because of what you do or can do for me.” (Source)
Challenge: As people connect more with each other and brands connect more with consumers, the biggest challenge here is to build authentic relationships, without hidden agendas. It is especially challenging for brands, as their marketing gurus are trying to figure out a way to “sell” something when people can smell their intentions from a mile away. No one likes to be “sold to”, but people still like to buy things that add value to them.
Outcome: The true honest value you add to people either as an individual or a company will be the only thing driving your business interactions.
Social Media Connection: It’s very easy to spot people with agenda on any social network and they are usually quickly pushed aside and unfollowed. Brands are being “friended” on social networks as if they were human, but are easily “unfriended” if they build relationships based on their sales conversion.
4. Developing group consciousness.
In the Aquarian Age: “Each action we take must be considered ecologically and globally because each person does affect, directly or indirectly, vast networks of people and other living beings and places.” ( Source)
“Now in the Age of Aquarius, everything becomes unified. All our differences, all our dualities mix together like the fragrances of a flower shop, with all of the different flowers adding their bouquet to the overall mix until they are inseparable. Each individual flower remains distinct and individual, each one’s fragrance is unique and discernible when you come up close to it, yet joined together in unity with the others in the wonderful mixture that is the smell of the shop.” (Source)
Challenge: It’s practically impossible to “mind your own business” these days. Doesn’t matter if you are a country, a company or an individual.
Outcome: Countries group together to solve problems (European Union), companies become more aware of the environment inside and outside, and individuals become more social.
Social Media Connection: We are connected to more groups than ever, via more networks than ever, and these connections will only become deeper as we add the local and off-line component to our online social activities.
5. Personal freedom as the dominant objective.
In the Aquarian Age: “Freedom First: Individual independence will become a dominant objective. Dependencies will disappear.” ( Source)
“Men will grow more magnetic under the influences that will play upon them. They will affect each other more and more, and that is one reason why greater freedom will be necessary.” (Source)
“The Aquarian Age will assist us to break out of the shell of ignorance, lack of self-esteem, and fear so that we can become, for the first time in history, truly free. As we become free to explore our own inner nature, the world around us will become self-actualized. In the Aquarian Age, it will not be whom you associate with but what you can do yourself that will count. Personal skills, wisdom, and character will be valued. Everyone will be considered capable living his or her passion and truth. The Aquarian Age is an age of individual freedom and responsibility. We will learn to control and direct our own life.” (Source)
Challenge: How do you cultivate your personal freedom without harming other individuals or society? How do companies help their employees cultivating their freedom without hurting company’s objectives?
Outcome: More and more people are becoming independent and stepping on the entrepreneurial path. People work remotely from different places in the world, or as consultants “lending” their expertise while keeping their personal freedom.
Social Media Connection: If you noticed, most people active in the social media are of the mentioned above kind. The fact itself of having a social media presence and persona is a step towards personal freedom, helping us to redefine who we are, using the complete freedom of this new virtual dimension.
Recommended reads in addition to the sited sources: “First and Last Freedom” by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Thoughts, comments, ideas are welcome below or @yuliz.
