Technology is amazing. There are changes in every aspect of our lives because of new software and the use of computers. We use applications for a number of everyday events and activities. We bank from mobile devices, communicate with help desk associates via Skype of immediate messaging, and even date via Skype or OOVOO. Talk about changes within the decade. It’s moving forward to Dick Tracey, Get Smart, and Star Trek level technology use.
Honestly, I can’t wait for telecommuting or touching my chest to converse with partner a thousand miles away. It would be great for real time travel in seconds. A diving excursion becomes minutes away to any location in the world. Imagine diving in Maldives from Atlanta in one afternoon.
Recently, on a personal note, there are changes occurring in job recruiting. My first experience in online interviewing is via a stand alone video. Its amazing how we don’t travel to sell our skills. Some companies video your initial interview. There are positives and negatives with the new concept. And the greatest negative for the interviewee is not seeing the interviewer. This decreases the ability to read those important body language comments giving you responses to ensure you’re on the right path. Second, you don’t get to break the ice and build rapport with your interviewer. I imagine it’s all mechanical and evaluation. It’s like you have to be an onscreen actor without a script.
Is technology changing the landscape of our personal behavior? It is more common for people to communicate via technology than it is for a person to lean beyond the petition and share a message in the work place. Today it seems more important to tweet, Instant message, or insta-gram your ideas or views than it is to meet a friend at a coffee shop and enjoy companionship. With each device and application, we lose the ability to interact on a personal scale and our interpersonal behavior skills fall short. How do you read body language when you never fully see the other person? Or do we accept on screen views of the other person as exactly the same as being in person?
Generations X, Y, and Pepsi are now standing in a world of the technology giants. We are the elderly with interpersonal skills that people today don’t employ. People of earlier generations enjoy giving greeting on the street, sharing a smile, encouraging laughter, and understanding body language. It is a skill which includes courtesy – a dying ability. Now, our social setting is through a computer/mobile application that helps us do those things and doesn’t allow for corrections if we make a mistake. I mean, we see and hear but lack the skill to see beyond the picture and respond accordingly. I wonder will technology one day help us read between the lines so we respond with compassion when needed?
Our personal behavior is changing because of technology. We stay connected and live in real time, but we connect at a time when that personal touch, the embrace of a hug, the simple smile, works greater wonders than a face on a screen. Don’t you think we need to balance technology and interpersonal skills and increase physical interactions?
Lonz Cook 