The Bada Bing Philosophy

Funny Motivational Speaker Vinny Verelli presents to the National Speakers Association Conference.

A Google search for “social networking” will get you 35,600,000 results. Everybody is hooked on social networking and social media! Everybody is wired.  Big deal. In my youth, I was wired all the time. But, now it seems it’s a good thing.

Growing up, I was always told to be sociable, and by sociable, my parents meant be nice around other people. The “or else” was implied.   Back then, social behavior was how you dealt with other people, interacted with them, face to face. Anything else was moving away from real social behavior.

I’m tired of people putting me on hold to answer a cell phone, receive a text or send a tweet. If there is a lull in the conversation, a person will send a tweet saying that there is a lull in the conversation, rather than actually saying something to break the lull in the conversation. And, I’m sorry, tweeting sounds like something I shouldn’t be doing.

Do you know what is the most frequent text message I get? “Call me.” What? You text me to tell me to call you when all you had to do was pick up the phone and call me.  No, you had already picked up the phone.  All you had to do was punch in a couple numbers, because if I’m not in your speed-dial or your favorites, you have no business calling me.

Do you see where I’m going with this? I didn’t think so. I can’t be the only one who sees the irony in this. Social networking is about as antisocial as you can get.

I never really got into this Web 2.0. I never got past Web 1.7.1.  I was happy when the internet was just porn.  Although, if you go to Google images and turn SafeSearch off, you can see some pretty amazing things.  But, now everything is 2.0.  It’s big business. “I can help you leverage your Web 2.0 strategy. I’m an expert on Web 2.0.” No, you’re a jerk 2.0.

Here’s the thing, if everyone is into this social networking, what does that tell you? It tells you it’s passé.  So I’m leading the Revolution into antisocial networking.  Not Facebook, but “In Your Facebook.” It’s not Linkedin, it’s “Tapped Out.” And, it’s not MySpace, it’s “MY SPACE.” Not your space; your space is over there.  “MySpace, capice?”

It’s time for a good old-fashioned sit-down, a little one-on-one time with no cell phones. No calls, no tweets, no e-mail, voicemail or texting. It’s you talking to me and me talking to you. Let’s see, what can we call this? Oh, I don’t know, conversation!

THE BADA BING: So, what is the message here? It’s time to really connect. Not through handheld devices, but face-to-face, and that takes some effort. But, remember the two steps to the Bada Bing, “get off your butt and do something.”  Social networking is the lazy way to keep in touch.  That’s why facebook and twitter are written in lower case on their websites; too frickin’ lazy to press the shift key.

Funny Motivational Speaker, Vinny Verelli is available for humorous keynotes and hilarious conference summaries.