Careful observation of the changing patterns of our complex lives is the emergence of patterns of voids of different kinds and shapes.
Examples include:
- Emotional Voids– the lack of the feelings of belonging, loneliness, and social isolation enhances the growth of these voids.
- Data Voids– these are voids that result from the need for information with a low supply of credible data. The demand-supply of data is not in balance resulting in the formation of data voids. M. Golebiewski and Boyd introduced the idea of data voids in 2019, and describe vulnerabilities that emerge from search engines.
- Shallowness Voids and Social Voids– resulting from spending long hours on social sites without real interactions. We get less time to make real connections and understanding of people close to us and even sharing the same place.
- Skill Voids– resulting from the rapid change of technology and its employment in many sectors of our lives.
These voids interact. For example, data voids enhance social voids and shallowness voids. Filling these voids is a challenging task for us all.
Nature hates voids and so we humans do because voids weaken us. If we do not fill the voids properly, these voids expand and weaken us more. The challenge is filling them properly so that we may lead better lives.
Metaphors for filling the voids
The bread metaphor- bread has voids and so it absorbs water. If water stays stagnant in these pores, it allows for the growth of mold, and in few days the bread rotten. Just watch the video below to see what I mean.
Information is like water and if it stays in the emerging words, it shall rotten and lead more expanding the data voids we suffer from. It is crucial that we circulate healthy water. We circulate the water of information by sharing it so that it does not rotten like what stagnant water does to bread.
The video shows the progress of mold growth because of stagnant water filling the voids of bread. So is the stagnation of the water of information in our emerging voids.
It is equally important that we do not contaminate the water of information by adding fake information, lies, and missing facts. Nobody wants to eat bread that is prepared with contaminated water.
Sharing knowledge in a meaningful way to save the healthiness of our lives.
One other important aspect of the bread metaphor is that we need to dry it before we store it. The voids of bread not only become empty again but also expand and become larger. Therefore, they shall fill again with greater capacity than before.
This fact reminds me of the cycle of the need for all of us to unlearn and relearn. We have skill voids and knowledge voids and we need to fill them with information that becomes knowledge to share with others. Once we do that we need to Enhance the number of spores, unlearn (remove water) and relearn (filling again with fresh waters of information). Learning is a life journey and is not an event.
The Sponge Metaphor
Sponge too has pores like bread. To use the sponge for extended times it is wise to clean it after use with soap and water to remove stains from it and then dry it. This way it keeps its capacity to clean.
We humans too have our emerging voids that we need to fill. Once we digested the ideas and used them, we must clean our “information sponge” so that we may keep the sponge ready to absorb new skills, technologies, and data.
Do not soak for long times- keep circulating knowledge, skills and share them. By getting feedback, you increase the holes in your sponge of skills and knowledge and enhance their capacity to absorb more.
It is only appropriate that I acknowledge the work that Dennis Pitocco is doing in collaboration with his excellent team and with Chris Berryman. Their efforts to bring humans together are a meaningful way is an assured way of filling the emergent human voids with the right information with a feeling of authentic social bonding spreading.
