Do We Still Value the Human Touch?
Do we still value the Human Touch?
We live in a world of constant technological advances. I can still remember a day when you went to the grocery store and had a human being check you out, when kids watched their favorite shows on a television not a computer or tablet, and when you had an issue you called the 800# and talked to a person and not an interactive voice recording/system. How much technology should we limit our children to nowadays?
In the not so distant future, I think we can expect to see technology continue to tremendously impact our daily lives, but we must not lose our sense of humanity in the meantime. I do not have a psychology degree (although I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night – just kidding), but I have seen myself and my friends/family become more and more connected, and it seems to add more stress to our everyday lives.
It seems to take a certain level of enjoyment out of activities when trying to multi-task everything. As a parent, I do not need research to tell me that too much video games/TV/internet is not good, and I would rather see my kids “unplug” more often and exercise or read a good book. Most likely, the future will be full of drones bringing us our Amazon orders, self-driving cars, as well as continued social media growth. My hope is that these things allow us to spend more quality time with our friends and family.
At the end of the day, companies motivated by bottom lines and other metrics are driving the technology that is going to benefit their organizations. Of course, technology is not all bad, but it’s up to us to help our kids not get too plugged in and still develop social skills that will help them enjoy life to the fullest and develop healthy imaginations and think for themselves.
God Bless,
Dan from Indiana
Consultant & Author
9 年Technology advancements is an interesting beast. I believe the word the world needs to understand in this decade, at least, is 'moderation'. The splinter stills seems to be that we are unable to keep a healthy balance of anything. And in these current times, the pendulum of technology has swung so far one way that we need to bring it back to the middle, not the other end. I say not the other end because as you mentioned technology does offer the world some great, great opportunities. The sickness (I believe that word fits) we seem to have is not the premise of technology making something in our lives easier or more efficient, but rather the never ending obsessive chase for the next advancement, the next big thing! We are a highly competitive world that spends a little too much time, I believe, trying to remedy the future and not enough time enjoying the present, even for just a short time frame. So, as you mentioned Dan, we need to use technology to enhance and increase our quality time with friends and loved ones, not replace it. ~Ian Ebbitt