I am grateful for being alive and having the privilege to write about Technology for you. We are what we think and being thankful for the great things that God gives us in life is a requirement for the longtime sustainability of blessings. Sure, technology has made us more connected to each other but at the expense of Gratitude. Let me explain.

Families and friends can now connect and network with each other quite easily on Social Media platforms like facebook and instagram, and that’s wonderful. When I connected with my friend Rodrigo Gracie (yeah, the Jiu-Jitsu MMA fighter) back in 2014, I experienced a true sense of nostalgia. It is not everyday that you find a childhood buddy from elementary school who is now a world renowned celebrity. Social media developers, kudos to you! From this standpoint, technology is awesome.

Unfortunately, connecting with old friends comes at the expense of losing gratitude. Most of what we read on-line is a collection of narcissistic self-centered statements that are rarely directed at the well being of others. That’s a problem. If people chose not to be grateful, chances are high that people won’t get living faith and without living faith, ladies and gentleman… people cannot get wealthy. At least, this is what Wallace Wattles states in his book, The Science of Getting Rich published in 1910. 

Technology empowered us to express ourselves at the expense of increasing confrontation. Do you really think that people care about what people share? I bet you that writing a post like this, “Today, I just got a promotion at work! Woo hoo!” will do more damage than good. Look, people get jealous about success. I don’t remember the last time I’ve heard anyone writing the following when visiting Cancun, “I want to thank my peers for covering for me while we take our vacation in Mexico! We couldn’t be here without your help.”

Most people don’t care about what people post on facebook unless the post relates to them. The main reason why this is the case is because gratitude is seldom seen in modern day facebook. When people share too many successful posts, be ready to get a combination of jealousy and competition, two very destructive things when not controlled.

The most heated conflicts I’ve witnessed in my life come from close relatives or friends who expressed themselves in too competitive a tone. Statements like, “Today, I got another promotion. Lucky to be me!” tend to generate silent wars among people regardless of culture. The closer a person is too you, the more issues these kind of statements tend to cause.

Real enemies are born out of ungratefulness. Social media blows these problems up. 

I would much rather engage with gratitude off-line than by constantly posting content about me on-line. Most people just don’t relate to “I statements” because it’s not about them. It is just a reality.

The question then is: Which benefit would any person gain by using more technology at the expense of losing gratitude? Not too many. Technology has empowered people to chose egoism over grace which I personally think is a big mistake. Be cautious with writing about yourself on-line. Be grateful.   

Plato once said that “a grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts in itself great things.” If what Plato said is relevant in today’s society and if social media makes us less grateful, them by logic — we are going to receive lower things. I don’t know about you but I enjoy the great things in life. No technology will ever persuade me from changing my thoughts about that.

I value gratitude. Valuing gratitude is human, reasonable, and required. I am not aware of anybody who got anywhere in life without the assistance of gratitude. Listen carefully: People get jealous when you constantly share success stories about yourself on-line. In the end, self promotion on social media only causes you trouble. The more you do it, the more headaches you get. If I had to choose between technology and gratefulness, I would choose gratefulness 100% of the time. Why? Because it doesn’t backfire.