26 Things About Me. . .And Why Should You Care?

It’s a popular facebook game. You post a list of 26 things about you and share a little. But, why? Why do we care? I’m thinking about that as I list the 26 things about me:

• A- Age: 50
• B- Biggest fear: Failure
• C- Current time: 11:24 PM
• D- Drink you last had: Water
• E- Every day starts with: Great Value Energy drink mix. . .in water
• F- Favorite song: Summer Highland Falls
• G- Ghosts, are they real?: Yes. Ghosts and worse
• H- Hometown: Lacey, WA
• I- In love with: My lovely wife of 28 years
• J- Jealous of: No one
• K- Killed someone?: Not sure why this question is even here? Seriously, they couldn’t find another “K” question? Kissed? Kind of food? But, killed? (You are correct, I avoided answering it.)  
• L- Last time you cried?: Watching a short clip of BYU’s national champion rugby team doing the Haka
• M- Middle name: Milan (Although no one except my family can pronounce it correctly)
• N- Number of siblings: Not sure. Really, I have no idea. It’s more than 8, but other than that, I have no clue.
• O- One wish: To be the kind of man my kids think I am
• P- Person you last called: A supervisor on our call floor in Kentucky
• Q- Question you’re always asked: Really? (After hearing I have 13 kids)
• R- Reason to smile: I have a roof over my head, food in my cupboards, a job and most of my kids around me.
• S- Song last sang: Sweet Hour Of Prayer
• T- Time you woke up: 3:30AM
• U- Underwear color: White
• V- Vacation destination: Somewhere dirty. Mountains, lakes, desert. Doesn’t much matter so long as I can sleep in a tent and cook over a fire.
• W- Worst habit: Procrastination
• Y- Your favorite food: My lovely wife’s homemade cinnamon-apple pie
• X- X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth, bowel, hand
• Z- Zodiac sign: Too much personal information

One of my favorite business books is “First Break All The Rules.” One of the lessons from that book is a list of questions that you can use to gauge how satisified your employees are. One of the qustions was, “Do you have a best friend at work?” Think about what that means, especially in light of the share something about yourself trend. 

We share to connect with one another. In Monsters, Inc Sully find a baby that has managed to get from the human world into the moster world. He names her Boo. Mike is not pleased.

Sulley, you’re not supposed to name it. Once you name it, you start getting attached to it. 

And Mike’s right. Once you name something, or someone, they change from an object to a person. It’s harder to be rude to a person than an object. A group of researchers once did a study where people were asked to evaluate the responsiveness of a computer. The researchers found that when people provided the feedback while logged into the computer, the scores were higher than if they provided the feedback logged into a different computer. It’s almost like they didn’t want to offend the computer. 

So, why do we do these “26 things” surveys? Because Facebook, in fact all social media, is pretty impersonal. As we share information, we start to see the names online as real people rather than just a screen name. We change them, and ourselves from objects to people. 

And the online world needs more people.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. 

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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com

(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved 

Here’s a copy if you want to post it yourself.

• Twenty-six things about me…
• A- Age: 
• B- Biggest fear: 
• C- Current time: 
• D- Drink you last had: 
• E- Every day starts with: 
• F- Favorite song: 
• G- Ghosts, are they real?: 
• H- Hometown: 
• I- In love with: 
• J- Jealous of: 
• K- Killed someone?: 
• L- Last time you cried?: 
• M- Middle name: 
• N- Number of siblings: 
• O- One wish: 
• P- Person you last called: 
• Q- Question you’re always asked: 
• R- Reason to smile: 
• S- Song last sang: 
• T- Time you woke up: 
• U- Underwear color: 
• V- Vacation destination: 
• W- Worst habit: 
• Y- Your favorite food: 
• X- X-Rays you’ve had: 
• Z- Zodiac sign: