Do you reach for your smartphone as soon as you wake up to check email and respond to texts?
How often are you messaging, browsing, friending, tweeting and sharing on your phone, tablet or computer?
Are we connecting with people around the globe..:.:.. Or are we "DISCONNECTING"?
Has the immediate world has lost out full attention?
Is their a long term impact of technology on personal interactions?
I requested some input from my Facebook followers. I asked:
“Q: What do you think? How does technology affect human relationships?”
I was amazed by the overwhelming response.
Conversations Lack Context
Their is an inability to detect tone. Is the writer being sarcastic, funny, not funny, serious or joking.”
Unless you see the person’s face, hear their voice and understand the environment, you have no idea of the context surrounding the written words.
Misunderstandings, miscommunications and assumptions result, which have an impact on how we view others.
Online Contact Falls Short on Empathy - you need the personal touch
There’s an utter lack of empathy when using technology to interact with others.
“I’m so sorry your ___ died” or “I heard you lost your job; I feel for you.” Where is the compassion and solidarity with loss? It certainly does exist within the soul of the person who texted, posted or emailed this – but words alone don’t necessarily convey that personal touch.
Do you use technology to pet your dog or cat? Not likely, because they couldn’t care less. Sometimes we fail to realize that, as humans, we’re also animals that need personal touch.
Tech Overload Leads to Cocooning
Technology takes you out of the physical world impacting on the number and quality of human relationships.
Conversations through social media and email take the place of traditional interactions and discussions; eventually, a person doesn’t even need to leave the house to communicate with others – and many people won’t. The cocooning phenomenon leads to social isolation that can be crippling for some.
Online Dating - a blessing or a curse ? A case study....
“Stan” married his college sweetheart. After two months of marriage, he walked into the home office to find his wife chatting with someone on Facebook. She assured him the guy was just a friend, but Stan soon saw the person’s name all over his wife’s news feed and posts. Not long after, she traveled to meet the man – staying at his place. Their child was born within a year after the visit.
Stan sees that whole relationship as something that started and developed entirely online. He’s convinced his ex-wife’s behavior would have manifested at some point, but technology drove the two of them apart faster. Stan’s new relationship started through an online dating site, but he quickly moved it into the real world. He’s understandably not a fan of developing relationships through social media.
Key Takeaway
There are many positives of online communication - but it is important to balanceour offline and online communications with others – personally and professionally.
I guess the best approach is to make yourself available through technology only when appropriate, so that it supplements our relationships rather than replacing them.
Is this a too-dismal view of technology in human relationships? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This post originally appeared on Bryan Kramer's blog
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