Image by Ivan Walsh via Flickr
For a long time, employers believe that employees work only for money. However, the Mayo experiment proved that employees work for recognition, self respect and a feeling of competence as well. Those employees who were given special tasks and special responsibilities worked harder because they felt they were being valued higher by their employer. The fact that they did not enjoy any pay hike did not deter them from improving their performance.
In the same way, many persons are of the opinion that having many friends on social networking web site is the best way of having a satisfactory social life. To measure life on the basis of numbers and quantity alone does not make sense. One must focus on quality as well. Will an individual prefer staying in touch with friends and family members through web cameras and videoconferencing throughout his or her life? Certainly not. Even the most technology friendly person will baulk at such an idea.
In such a scenario, it is important to understand the limitations of technology. When we don’t have any choice, we will prefer staying in touch with our near and dear ones with the help of technology as opposed to staying out of contact. However, if people have a choice between personal interaction or interaction through technological media, they will always prefer the former.
You may feel that chatting with your family on the computer is no different than chatting in person. However, the truth is that technology is, at best, a poor substitute for the human brain. Hence, don’t expect technology to enable you to skip personal interactions and other traditional modes of interaction altogether.
