I had fun last week at the Brainfood Store Digital Festival in Dublin, Ire. My talk went pretty well and while I was up on the dais, I realized I was seeing the faces of most attendees.
In Ireland, people at digital conferences, for the most part are not live tweeting or blogging. They are not checking email or texting to any great degree. They are sitting and listening for the most part. When you speak to such an audience, you see their eyes, their smiles and frowns. You know when they are on your side or not. You can see them either nod or nod off.
This is in striking contrast to many of my talks in the US, which have become face-to-forehead experiences. Here, digital conference speakers only see fleeting glances of many audience participants.
This has started me thinking a lot about screens. It has dawned on me how much of our lives are now being spent staring into screens, television monitors, cell phones, computers and so on.
As we have turned our backs on TV, others have wrangled to put them in front of us anyhow. I was in a Boston cab recently that had a TV on the back of the front seat. There was no on/off switch so I had to watch. The same during many of my hours waiting for planes or in bars.
In Las Vegas, where digital screens continue to replace neon on the fabled strip, I'm told some toilet stalls now have digital billboards on the backs of doors.
But that's the involuntary perfusion. The voluntary is astounding. It seems that wherever I go, whoever I'm with, one of us is on a device that has a screen.
Don't get me wrong. I am a big believer in the miracle of connected devices. Each of them is a portal into the rest of the world. I could not live without them nor would I want to.
But with almost all great innovations there are unintended consequences. With the greatest of gains, we often suffer losses. I've been wondering lately if digital connectivity is costing us a certain human connectivity.
There remains nothing quite like a face-to-face meeting.I hope there never will be. Screens are portals but so are human eyes.
I've been trying for the past few days to dedicate one hour daily to not looking into screens. Just one hour. And it has proven a little more difficult than I thought.
I've just started, but so far, one hour's abstinance has cost me nothing: no business, no communications, no news, no enlightenment. What I have discovered is that I have become addicted to screens, and I'm pretty certain that is not a good thing.
Think about it.
{ 3 comments }
One consequence I see coming is the tendency to not stare into each other's eyes for long, because they are not moving. Can we keep looking at static objects, even if it means someone we dearly love? Or is our social life getting even more Hollywood-like, constantly in motion?
I agree with Claire's point of view and yours. I have been using a smartphone for years and I had a good friend which was much older than me (Could have been my dad) that reminded me constantly on how much I was taking a stare at my Smartphone (at that time a Treo).
After his many reminders I started glancing around in every restaurant and bar and you can see how many people are actually sitting on the same table and not interacting with themselves.
You can see anything from kids playing on their PSP, Parents on their Blackberries, Kids on their Iphones having dinner all of them interacting with the rest of the world and not appreciating what is next to them ( in most occasions a family member or friend).
I try to capture as much as I can from people and interact with them without using my phone unless it is extremely critical for me to check my phone (does not happen that often).
Thanks for the post will be looking forward to your post on Oracle's efforts.
Thank you for asking us to think. It's very interesting to hear the trends about tweeting vs. looking up and fully taking in what speakers are saying. I guess I sometimes resent that everything has to be immediate - I get it, but can't we take a moment to read expressions, make eye contact and stop typing? I am a firm believer in face-to-face marketing and won't ever believe that relationships can be fully leveraged without the in-person connection. I am a believer in social media too, but sometimes I have to resent the copious amount of time it takes to really engage online. Thanks for a thought provoking post. I'm glad your audience was looking at you and that you got to appreciate their reactions (positive I'm sure).
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