Am I not sensitive enough?
Or are others too sensitive?
The topic has been discussed, the idea, that as we progress into a more digital age people are increasingly lacking the personal – that is the real person to person interaction.
In short, and you may have heard it stated more concisely that the more high tech we become, the more high touch we become also. That, as technology distances us physically from each other the more “sensitive” we become when we are in contact with a real person, or “face to face”.
Usually this topic is heard about in sales, service, customer relationship management, etc. But I think it’s overall.
Maybe because this internet/digital age has gained critical mass after my formative years – after graduating high school – I don’t have the hyper sensitivity to things that are not “real” or that are digital.
Here are some examples, and things I have become aware of in the last few months.
Online social platforms have become and have nearly replaced what is real. A friend request accepted or ignored, a post, picture or comment liked. Something which I view as simple, trivial, and relatively inconsequential carries much more weight than I think it warrants to others.
I have “friends” on social media that I went to school with and have had no or minimal contact in years.
Others view friends on these same platforms much more critically than I. The addition/subtraction/deleting of a friend, or the updating of a status carries far more weight than I think is healthy. And the same for “likes” or any other interactions online.
The whole emphasis of online and digital, I think, has created an imbalance to the detriment of those heavily involved in it from first light in the morning to the last thing before their head hits the pillow at night – unless they have some way to balance it with other activity and energy flow.
Maybe I need to get with the times, or get up to speed with the way things work in my part of the USA. Though, I oft been the one remarking on how a table full of people can be solely focused on their devices each individually and not a word be spoken among them.
All in all, I think everyone should be calm about all this digital age and social platforms.
Relax.
Put down the devices for a good portion of each day.
Unplug from the feeds, streams, posts, updates, texts, emails, and chat sessions.
And make face to face conversation with another human part of your daily routine.