Kids losing the human touch

 It happens all the time. It happened again in my NineShift speech in Miami this month.

A faculty member worried about the kids losing the human touch. If you google the headline of this post, you'll find lots of people saying the same thing in the media.  Here's one of the newest quotes I found when I googled the phrase.

"When we take the human element out, we're losing a God-given or natural kind of need to interface with people," said Daniels in a story in the South Bend Tribune recently.

Gen Y does realize it has some F2F skills to develop. But the bigger truth is: there's nothing to it. The kids embrace both physical or F2F reality, and virtual reality. And they interact in both, sometimes at the same time.  For more on this story, see posts for March 20 and March 22.

Photo: Two Miami high school girls returning home on the train from school, sharing a song on an iPod.  They also were talking with a girlfriend across the aisle. Julie took this wonderful picture.

Comments

[Creative Recreation]

So nice to study your perfect weblog on the spare time. Your write-up brings me different type of feeling about the literature.

[Julie]

Regarding the young woman's attire--It's how kids dress, now. You can go online and find an amazing amount of information on the trend of "underwear as outerwear."

Personally, I find a glimpse of a spaghetti strap and the covering of the modest serape to be less offensive than the ubiquitous bare-midriff look that is so popular among young women today.

Since this is what she wore to school, I suspect her mom is not upset, and it doesn't seem to be a violation of school dress code, and it was 95 degrees that day. I took the picture on the way back from the beach.

As to why LERN would post it--It's a terrific example of how young people today have incorporated technology into every aspect of their lives.

[Deb]

I've walked the corridors of our college and noticed the prevalence of students with cell phones and now iPods (as I sit with an Apple t-shirt on during spring break). Most of our classrooms use Blackboard, Web sites and/or laptops as part of the curriculum to engage students in learning. Yet, being a geek myself, I still strongly believe the importance of F2F interaction and have joined in campus debates to encourage faculty to include attendance as points towards a higher grade. In the workforce, I need more than IM skills to get my boss or a customer to buy into an idea. I need to understand other people's verbal communication (accents included) and how to deal with a stressful situation from someone I don't know so well, especially when I can't simply tune them out by putting on headset or closing a window. I also strongly believe that "forced" classroom interaction has provided me with new outlooks, a less linear, more global perspective than electronic-only learning. Because of the this, I'll never understand students today who purposely skip class because, "I already know the stuff or can Google it." That's simply not the only point of group learning.

ps to the post about attire: what you see is normal for most college students in the midwest.

[Kim Gerardot]

I find the picture distrubing, why would LERN post a picture of a young lady with what seems to be her under garment exposed? If it was me, my daugher or friend in the picture I would not be happy.

[Ted]

Just think what they'll say about the new generation once we all get those handy 'chip-in-the-brain' products!

Wait, strike that.

Just think what thoughts they'll beam to one another once we all get those handy 'chip-in-the-brain' products!

You'd think that GenX would be too preoccupied with technology and work to deal with their children i.e. losing the human touch. Studies have shown that GenX mothers are actually spending MORE TIME with their children than their mothers did with them.

The loss of human touch, much like the paperless office, is one of the urban myths of futurism. Don't be fooled - we ALL crave human interaction (and a good book)!

[John]

Terry, I'm sure grandparents said the same thing about the phone and before that I'm sure they claimed that a telegram was also impersonal.

I don't view it as losing the human touch, it's simply expanding upon it (I'm sure we all remember the 'Reach Out and touch someone' campaign from AT&T)

Like Heather, I too communicate with my grandparents via email. It's to the point, and I don't have to hear 'slow down'. Even communication with my parents is done mostly through email, they're busy and I'm busy, so it allows us to communicate at each others convenience. This in spite of the fact that it's a local call and only a 25 minute drive to see them.

There are also times where I start a conversation on IM that seems to evolve to the point where a phone call is the best medium for finishing the conversion. I'd surmise that this is also true with Gen Y.

[Terry Newman]

Do you think that our grandparents said the same things when kids started calling each other on the phone instead of meeting at the park or library to talk in person?

[Erik]

I agree. I think the majority of Gen Y is able to balance the virtual and the real. Technology shouldn't be blamed for removing the human touch from people's lives. When used responsibly, it is a great way to reach out to others. As with anything else, when taken to an extreme it could be harmful.

[Heather Dimitt]

Why is it people assume technology removes the human element? I feel like it helps me stay in touch with friends and family more than it isolates me. Like many people my life is way overloaded with "have-to-dos". I have a full-time job, part-time job and full-time grad school. My days often start at 7 a.m. and end around 2 a.m. That doesn't leave much time to remember to do things such as buy cards for holidays. Yet thanks to text messaging, I can send all my friends and family well wishes for Easter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, birthdays, Thanksgiving, New Year's, Christmas, 4th of July, etc. in 20 minutes or less. I love receiving those messages too, because it lets me know people are thinking and care about me. Then there is e-mail. My 76 year old grandma and I stay in touch via e-mail. She & my grandfather live in a different time zone than I in the winter. It's hard for her to hear me on a cell phone so I can't call here when I'm running from place to place during the day. By the time I'm near my home phone in the evening, they are in bed. However, thanks to e-mail, we can chat back and forth a couple times a week. She loves e-mail for planning family celebrations because it let's her tell all her "little ones" the plans in one message versus several phone calls and letters. (Not to mention we like the fact that by receiving the same message, we all find out the same details, versus the "half-story" we can sometimes get on the phone.) Last but not least, when I'm having a really bad day (you know the kind when you feel that everyone wants a piece of you) I can go back and read saved text messages and e-mails from friends and family. Those messages refresh & recharge me and fulfill my need for comfort and belonging. Isnt' that what the "human element" is all about?

[Aaron Donsky]

As we continue to move into the 21st century, the nature of relationships and how we maintain them is changing for all of us, not just the Y generation although they have less to bind them to the old ways and so we see the changes more in them. Computer dating, Myspace.com, etc. are all reflecting how technology is affecting how we relate to each other. There was a major change when we moved from an agricultural society to the industrial one.