Authentically green

Being green is now a verb. When I was growing up it meant being looked at as different and even weird. "You eat toe fu? What the heck is that?!" My lunch bag packed with sprouts and homemade wheat bread made kids around me at school gag. My mother taught me how to clean and smoosh cans the right way so that they could be recycled. Back then there were strict requirements on how recycling was to arrive at the transfer station. She made most of our clothes, we grew huge gardens which she would dry/freeze/can for winter. I even remember us grinding our own grains for bread. We were thrifty--going out to eat was a big treat.

Now being green is cool and trendy. Everyone wants to jump on the green bandwagon, especially businesses. It's made me pause, more than once, in my own business, EcoMedia LLC and wonder, "Am I doing this for the wrong reason?" I don't want to become someone who uses greenwashing tactics to get ahead in the business world.

But where do we draw the line? Is it wrong to help businesses promote the things they are doing to become more environmentally-friendly? How do we determine if a company is truly trying to help the environment or just trying to put on a "green front" to help their own pocket?

Social Networking--Green Media?

Are you tweeting? Have you friended someone lately? Are you LinkedIn?

Social Networking. For some it's a fun, interesting way to stay connected to friends, family, and clients. For others it's a nightmare.

Regardless of how you feel personally about social networking, I believe it's here to stay in the business world.

Social networking is a pretty green way to market your business. No need for direct mailings and no traveling door to door to meet sales clients. No need to copy hundreds of pages of information about yourself and your business when you want to show potential customers your products or services--just direct them to your Web site, blog, Facebook or LinkedIn page.

But does social media help or hurt relationships in the long run? A friend once told me that social networking is sort of "pre-networking". It makes going to those scary mixers a little less intimidating. My sister was telling me last night that social networking helps her to feel more connected to our extended family members. It gives us a way to catch up with each other when we get together for those relatively infrequent family gatherings. When you generally see people twice a year, it provides some connection to cousins and aunts and uncles, and a way to start a conversation.

But is there a point when a good ole' fashioned phone call or visit on the front steps is seen as too much work when you can easily IM someone or direct a tweet to them online? Where do we draw the line between social networking and hermitism? Isn't there something to be said for the connection between people that needs to be seen face-to-face, or at least heard telephone to telephone?

What do you think? Is social networking a great tool to stay connected, or a hindrance on personal and professional relationships?