Sharing all the world

“Imagine all the people sharing all the world…” [Lyrics from John Lennon’s song Imagine.]

A term that often crops up in relation to social media is ‘sharing’. But, why should we share when we can have everything for ourselves?

Believe it or not, the human desire to share is as instinctive, as dominant and valued as the human desire to own, to possess, to consume, to have everything for ourselves.

In order to keep both believers (in God’s creation) and the rationalists happy, and to keep a long story short, I’ll simply say here that this human desire – and the behaviour that originates from it – has its beginnings in anthropology. That is, it’s been within us from time immemorial.

Sharing makes us human. As we share with others, we create a field of trust that breaks down barriers which sometimes exist between us. The more we share, the more trust we encourage in others. The more we share, the more the number of people who trust us.

Sharing makes us social. As we share with others, we provide information and opinions which help people make better decisions about their lives. The more we share, the greater the opportunity to help others. The more we share, the greater the number of people who benefit from what we say and do.

In turn, they too share with us – building a circle of trust and making our lives better.

This is true not only among friends and within families, but also for our relationships with brands, products, service providers, institutions and governments… improving the quality of life all around and making the world a better place. Now and forever.

Happily, today, sharing is a lot easier (and faster), thanks to tools and technologies such as telephones, mobilephones, emails, internet searches, and social media platforms like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.