Socialization — The Second of The “Things Wink Will Never Compromise On”

At a first glance, it could seem that we are repeating ourselves, talking about socialization as another one of the things we find value in and that we will never compromise on. We invite you to read on and see why socialization is worthy of an article of its own.

We think of socialization as the more palpable aspect of a genuine relationship. The fuel that keeps the relationship going. Meaningful relationships call for commitment and constant interaction to thrive. In other words, socialization.

There is no denying that, these days, socialization happens many times virtually. There’s so many reasons for that; think of lack of time, distance, traffic, scheduling, costs, comfort. There are times when it is the only choice or the best choice. No arguing there.

But, there are also times when face to face interaction is the best choice. For you and the relationship, that is. We believe that the benefits are well worth the effort.

The ones we have experienced and share now with you form by no means an all-inclusive list. Actually, we think you could add to it. Feel free to share in a ‘response’ below what are your positive outcomes of meeting face to face with someone. Here are ours:

You stop thinking about just yourself and think of others too. It is healthy, from time to time, to focus on someone else. We are so easily absorbed by our needs, our desires, our problems. Pause. They won’t disappear. We promise.

Somewhat of a paradox, we’ve discovered that meeting with someone and trying to understand them leads to understanding yourself better. Faced with someone else’s life, problems or opinions you get to practice empathy, analyze a viewpoint different than yours and define your own.

You can help or be helped. Togetherness is a place where you can help and be helped. It can be just some information, expressed understanding, coming up with a solution or actually doing something. Either way, it’s a gain: you help and your self esteem grows or you’re helped and you’ve solved a problem. Win-win.

A seemingly commonplace conversation can expose you to so many unthought of ideas, things or ways of living life. Conversations take you to unexpected places.

You get to know someone else better. We, humans, are a very assorted bunch. We each have our own specialness and it is a privilege to discover that!

Doing life with someone else means you will probably do some of the things you would never do if you were just by yourself. You might just visit a museum you never knew existed, discover a part of your town you had no idea was there, find yourself doing something adventurous or try a different cuisine.

You are not isolated. You belong with someone. You share experiences, you talk or simply are together — you socialize, for short, and that deepens your relationship and makes you a well rounded person. Life is enriched in all sorts of ways. The quality of the life you live gets to the next level. Just give it a try.

We thought we could help with Wink. The point of our app is to encourage and challenge people to get together and share experiences. We think there’s so much value in that.

One more thing, before we wrap up this conversation: networking virtually when we are getting together with someone. It seems that everywhere you look, even when we meet face to face, we still spend time in the virtual. The virtual gains more and more ‘physical’ terrain. Next time you are out, take a look around and see how many people in a group are online rather than talking to each other.

Allow us to be candid for a moment: the stats about how much time we spend online are hard to believe. Hours upon hours we are virtually connected to everyone and anyone. Why does that need to happen even when we get together?

Someone put in the effort of making you a priority and spending time with you. Why not offer the same respect in return and give that person your full attention. Can’t the virtual come second for once?

(To leave no room for misinterpretation, the statement above is not about emergencies or important phone calls. It refers to simply checking the world wide web).

We think this is an uphill battle, but not a lost battle. We are working on ways to limit screen time when you are with your friends. We don’t yet have all the answers, but we’re exploring solutions. We want to make a priority out of being in the moment and enjoying your connection with your friends, but also having the possibility to immortalize it virtually. With Wink.

Want to join in our effort? You can pre-register at wink.social to become an insider and make Wink a reality for you and everyone. You can also follow us (in moderation) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and always know where we’re at.

We’re in this together,

The Team Powering Wink