Next Generation Workplace

Next Generation Workplace is my blog for posting ideas and commentary from my research work on how global changes in the workforce, business practices and technologies are transforming the workplace and the implications for employers and workers.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Is Technology Making Us Anti-social?

This short article on silicom.com makes me wonder about this question. It suggests that people are spending so much time using computers that their interpersonal skills are beginning to suffer. This has long been suspected of programmer, IT support staff and other geek-types who seem so much more comfortable dealing with objects governed by binary logic than human beings governed by complex emotions. But the article suggests that the diminution in social skills caused by computers is affecting all workers, not just techies.

Sometimes things are given names that get to the heart of what they really are. "Personal Computer" is one such spot on designation. What makes it really interesting is how long it took before many people, certainly business people and especially IT managers, began appreciating how personal computers, and increasingly other electronic gadgets really are to people.

Computers are not just tools of self-expression, they are themselves a form of self-expression and identity. Look how people customize them. What they do with them. And as we are seeing with other electronic gadgets like cell phones and i-Pods, they can be fashion statements and vital pieces of one's identity. So is it really surprising that people are relying too much on technology to communicate with each other? Or that it may be having an adverse effect on our interpersonal skills?

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2 Comments:

At 2:56 PM, Blogger Espen said...

In a recent debate I participated in, a politician (smarter than the average sample) said that we should be careful to shape our views of new technology on ourselves, and instead look at the youngsters. And judging from my daughters, the PC, the Internet and the cell phone does not hinder their social skills, quite the contrary.

 
At 9:38 AM, Blogger mbowman said...

great job your blog really helped my grade at school you have some really good points

 

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