COMMUNICATING A DISCONNECTION

Have you ever considered that we live in a world in which we have more assistance than ever before when it comes to communicating and yet, in many respects, we are more disconnected than possibly any other generation for decades? Smartphones, iPads, instant messenger, texting, email – all designed to make our lives easier (and in many ways they do) and to ensure we communicate with colleagues, family and friends with all the efficiency of a well-oiled military operation.  Ah, if only!

I worry that we seem to be losing something of the personal touch we all need as human beings, whether it be in times of celebration, occasions of stress and sadness, or simply when you just need to share.

The world is complicated. If you want to find a partner, there is fair likelihood that in 2011 you will begin that search online. If you need to phone a large organisation, then you just know you will play a mind-numbing game of button pushing before speaking to a human being (Virgin Media now offers me a choice of music while waiting – press one for rap, two for country!). People on Twitter give a blow-by-blow account to their followers of a television programme they’re watching – the modern-day equivalent of the mid-morning “water cooler moment”, but in extreme, I guess.

And then there’s Facebook.  Now, I acknowledge I’m probably not Mr Zuckerberg’s ideal target age range (although, interestingly, that seems to have shifted in the past couple of years – parents keeping tabs on off-spring?) but I acknowledge the huge value of social networking and the way in which it effortlessly taps into our time-starved world.

What I really don’t understand about Facebook is why some people feel a need to share their innermost personal thoughts or air their dirty laundry. Is this really the place to tell the world your boyfriend’s a dick, your boss is a bastard or you want to stay in bed all day and hide from the world? What happened to calling up a friend, female bonding over a cup of coffee or having one of those awkward but reassuring man hugs?

Email, of course, is today’s business communications tool of choice and yet I was struck again the other day by how much more one can gain and achieve by picking up the phone.  Be honest, how many times have we all engaged in email ping-pong when one simple phone call would probably have done the job?

Modern day technology is fantastic – you’ll get no argument from me on that one. The things it enables us to do, the wealth of information and knowledge it opens up to us at the click of a mouse, and the speed with which it enables us all to communicate is staggering. But are we communicating as effectively as we could be both in our personal and professional lives? Just asking.