At the ripe old age of 44, I have just exclaimed out loud
for the first time “What has the world come to?” Utah
university latest to introduce 'texting lanes' for pedestrians glued to their
mobile phones
Mobile technology has reached out and enslaved us
all. Even I must admit that when I
recently dropped my mobile phone down the toilet, I unexpectedly felt cold and
very alone. Suddenly I couldn’t connect
with anyone or anything and that made me feel vulnerable. How bizarre that I grew up in an age where
communication boiled down to letter writing and being static whilst on the
telephone as it was attached by a cable to the wall. We even had a customised telephone seat with
an integrated small table and cupboard which allowed telephone directories (do you
remember those?) to be secreted and not on show.
So, is being able
to simultaneously speak, respond to business emails, tweet, check weather and
know how many calories you’ve burned so great?
Face to face contact is reducing with the popularity of “at home working”
and being able to carry out business using conference calling, skype, webinars
and whatever else is out there. My
personal opinion is that it is starting to put immense pressure on us as it
impacts and invades our downtime which is all important in this fast world
which is getting faster, and stress being at an all time high.
We run a communication
workshop that elaborates on the fact that you cannot NOT communicate. By NOT responding to texts or emails, we
are communicating and potentially being judged.
It is maddening. A good lesson to
remember is that the most effective communications are those that send messages
(and I don’t mean electronic necessarily) and present information according to
the recipients’ needs. Interestingly, body
language accounts for 55% of communication when in a face to face situation,
but only 10% when on the phone. 70% of phone
communication is down to the tone of the voice; barring the lack of being able
to hear it due to bad reception! We also
have “text speak” which I refuse to engage in as I believe it was invented because
people are lazy, have terrible grammar and can’t spell.
So back to
texting lanes? It’s not just the USA
that’s gone mad, it’s the rest of the world too, with Belgium trialing
designated smartphone pedestrian lanes and a smartphone sidewalk in Chongquing. I can only think that encouragement of this
will lead to an increase in the number of accidents as awareness of environment
is impacted. I shall also personally
mourn the loss of eye contact and engagement and a polite good morning. My mother doesn’t often get it right, but her
phrase of “Everything in moderation” seems to be the way to go. Don’t be enslaved by technology, utilise it to
your advantage without compromising your work and social community.
