"Look me in the eye when I speak to you ..." Something that many of us have heard, something with a lot of sense and that today, with the use of technology we have lost. It seems incredible how communication through technology has deprived us of the 70% that some studies say that non-verbal communication provides.
According to some studies, digital communication is affecting people's empathic capacity. We get to apologize in a WhatsApp without seeing the face of the person who reads us, or worse, to scold, recriminate or even insult without having the bodily feedback of the person who is on the other side of the phone or computer. It is easier to avoid the effect of our words and to resume the conversations later, when we know that we have been forgiven without having been exposed to the unpleasantness of the effect of our words.
We can only recommend the book of Sherry Turkle “In defense he gives the conversation. The power of conversation in the digital age ” Where we can read about ads that recommend connecting to Facebook to avoid Grandma's roll during dinner or as a WhatsApp or email allow us to control, rewrite and even ask for opinions before expressing ourselves, something that makes communication scary afterwards face to face where we can go wrong and become more vulnerable.
At Healthy Work we just want to remember that technology is here to stay. Just like the landline or the train. But that we must learn to use it without it becoming a tool that diminishes our empathic capacity. There are many things that can be done. One example is banning telephones at family dinner time, or at meals on weekends with friends. Only then we will not forget what a conversation is and we will develop the necessary skills to be present in a communication.