Some scientists believe the wired world is significantly changing the way people read, learn and interact. UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Gary Small postulates that our daily dependence on digital technology is actually altering the way our brains work. It’s the Darwin principle on fast forward. Small believes fundamental change in the way humans communicate is coming not in millennia but within a few years.
Small and others in the psychiatric community say that society’s emphasis on technology is causing people to lose the basic social skills upon which human interaction has been based for thousands of years. Young people who interact with their peers almost strictly via Internet instant messages and text messages are losing the ability to read facial expressions during conversations. With fewer daily interactions taking place face-to-face, the ability to understand important body language cues is being lost. Loss of use is causing the brain circuits used in face-to-face communication to wither, Small asserts. The result is that we are becoming a society of social misfits. Particularly among young people in their teens and 20s, the so-called digital natives, social awkwardness and isolation are increasing. Interest in traditional classroom learning is lagging. The communication and social interactions that define us as a human society are changing.
Small, the author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, likens today’s digital communication revolution to the dramatic societal changes precipitated by humankind’s move from oral to written communication more than 2,000 years ago and, more recently, the advent of television. At the time, both raised strong concerns among the established members of society, despite which, both prevailed and have significantly changed the way we communicate.
With these digital natives poised to enter the workforce and become the next major consumer group, what does this mean for business owners? To a degree, the established values of the current business community will mold new entrants in its own image. Digital natives will be forced to acquire at least some social skills to survive and compete in an environment that still values face-to-face communication. But as the number of digital natives in business grows, they and their viewpoint will exercise increasing control over how business is enacted. As the reigns of power are handed from one generation to the next, the preference for digital communication will change the way we do business.
Next Tuesday: Positioning yourself to meet the communication challenges of tomorrow.
