Being Present: a new reality?

Being Present: a new reality?

Last week a friend tweeted about people taking pictures of presenters' slides at a conference he was attending in the UK. One apparently, was even sending the slides to a colleague so he could be "participating."! He ended his tweet with "WTF?". I was surprised at participants' audacity to be taking pictures of the slides and, even more, of using their phones so obviously, and wondered if it was rude or just a new reality.

Then I attended a session on the weekend given by my sports coach. She was sharing what she had learned at three recent international coaching leadership conferences she had just attended. She had a slide presentation and joked that four of her slides (full of statistics) were pictures of the presenters' slides that she'd taken with her i-Phone. Boom! There it was again! She assured us that she had asked for permission to use them afterwards. This whole concept of using one's electronic devices so openly in a conference was intriguing.

Then three days later, I'm attending a conference on engaging the public service, with a strong focus on social media tools and Boom! there it is again, in my face....participants openly using their smartphones and other electronic devices to send messages, tweets and yes, take pictures of the presenters' slides. And no one was put-off by it! Man, I felt like I was such a snail in this electronic age!

It can't have been more than two/three years ago where we were asked to turn off our cellphones or PDAs and be present for the meeting or training session. Today, everyone is being encouraged to stay connected. That led me to wondering about "being present." If you're attending a meeting, conference, class, how can you be present if you're using your communications device (s) constantly? Or are you being present when you are reacting in the moment to your outside world in the virtual space of electronic devices?

I used to think that "being present" meant to be in the moment in the "real" world. There are a lot of people who teach about mindfulness and clearing our external world in order to stay present in the here and now. This experience has forced me to rethink the whole concept of "being present."

Are we pushing the envelope? Is this healthy? Are we creating such multi-dimensional realities that "being present" no longer has any real meaning (or has many meanings)? Is this leading to more stress as we feel we need to be constantly connected to the world? Or is it creating more opportunities for connecting, for collaborating, for building? And what is the real "reality"? Are we present only when we are in real time in a bricks and mortar environment? or can we be "present" when we are interacting with a reality outside the walls, even the borders, of where our body physically is? Or does our reality constantly shift as we are "present" in the here and now AND the there and now?

Electronic devices. Different realities. "Being present". It's a lot to think about. It's a little bit scary and a whole lot exciting!