Yes, technology makes communication efficient, but is it making us poor communicators?

Technology has improved so many facets of human life that it gets hard to stop and think about how it has changed us. Perhaps the problem lies in our inability to draw a line when it comes to the difference between leveraging technology to facilitate our lives and completely surrendering to it.

For example, technology, while making communication physically faster and more efficient, ironically ends up stifling our ability to ‘effectively’ communicate and build meaningful relationships. I know tons of people who avoid speaking to others over the phone or are unable to make conversation in person who strangely enough are great conversationalists over text! I don’t even remember the last time I called a relative or an old friend or spoke to a neighbour.

Even at the workplace, our interactions are getting more and more practical and utilitarian. In India, where I spent five years working, I realized that most workplaces do not appreciate socializing, internal coffee-chats and meet-ups. In fact, these are considered a waste of productive time. Most of our workplace interactions are electronic to the point that it impacts the personal development, of young individuals making them less effective at public-speaking, networking and socializing.

“We are having full conversations through a screen and then choking up and stuttering in person. We are activists on social media, but reserved in our everyday exchanges.” — Naila Lauzurique

While technology allows us to avoid communicating it also empowers us to say things we never could to someone’s face. While Facebook allows one freedom of speech from the comforts of home, it also allows one to hide behind a screen and bully and troll others, hurl abuses and verbally assault them. This lack of accountability is worrisome.

This applies to corporates too. During the current pandemic, technology has kept most businesses afloat. However, these times have also shed light on how electronic communication has slowly de-humanized corporates. The most recent example is Bird, the electronic scooter company that laid off over 400 employees (30–40% of their workforce) through a 2-minute Zoom webinar. Reportedly, laid off employees were locked out of their computers approximately 10 minutes after the webinar began and the ones who were unable to attend found out via a news article. I don’t know what’s worse — the incident or the fact that this is not unimaginable.

Due to our increasingly low levels of human exposure, we are becoming more presumptuous and less empathetic to others which is obvious in majority of corporate communications that are insensitive and often bloated by meaningless corporate phrases or buzzwords. Once again, hiding behind the screen of employee’s email inboxes, management finds the courage to say things they never would to that person’s face.

Technology enhances our intelligence as we use it. But does it reduce our emotional intelligence?

#CBSDigitalLiteracy