Turn Up The Volume On Human Connection

A week after my best friend and carpool buddy, Karen, moved to Portland, she sent me an email: “What’s going on at work? I miss hearing about it.”

I was in the car thinking about how to respond. I’d send her a one-line response: “Work is good. How are you?” I didn’t have time to write three sentences (much less three paragraphs) with the latest stories about my quirky colleagues and hectic life. And when I got home, it would be the same story. One of my three kids would be crying as I tried to sneak in an email before or after the mad dash to get them fed, bathed, and in bed.

What Karen wanted to hear were the daily stories from my life. And I had time right now in the car to talk to her. I wasn’t distracted by work, kids, or anything else. I was listening to my favorite album and feeling reflective. I could try to call her but she’d never answer. On the off chance she did, I’d be interrupting something – she’d be getting out of the shower, at the dog park with her husband, or biking to work.

I imagined our friendship disappearing like a wisp of smoke out the car window – like countless friendships from my earlier years on the east coast. Now my childhood and college friends were busy with their own lives, and we had time zone differences to contend with.

We know that Level 3 on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is love and belonging. Human connection and personal relationships are fundamental to a life worth living. Yet we have relegated communication with the people we care about most to transactional texts and social media platforms that make us feel bad. Where can we share the messiness of life with those we trust most? Our existing modes of communication have all been developed by men in their twenties. Young men may be many things – but are they exemplars of communication?

By founding Rolltape, I’m betting the farm on this simple concept: we can get people talking with authenticity again. And we can communicate with emotion. Our lives as satisfied and connected human beings depend on it.

Rolltape – I hear you. Sign up for our beta!