Preserving human connection in a world of AI
There is no denying that technological advancement has completely changed the world (as some of us have known it). Love it or hate it, it is here to stay. Millenials like me, remember a childhood without screens. A childhood that was lived outside, playing with friends, until the street lamps came on. We learnt from a young age how to interact with each other, how to resolve conflict when we thought someone was cheating in a game, how to knock on a stranger’s door to ask for our ball back. Why am I going down memory lane? Because thinking back of all those micro moments, I do not think any of us truly appreciated how this shaped our personalities. To be able to make friends, to be able to talk to strangers, to learn how to resolve conflict, to learn basic human interaction.
Fast forward to today, generations after mine are slowly but surely growing up in what can be summed up as social isolation. I walk in parks, streets, even the country side - it is a rare sight to see kids playing outside. Walking through places, all I see are kids glued to screens. Kids who have grown up now (Gen Z) to embark on their professional journeys, and they struggle with basic communication. This is not to generalise. There is nuance to every statement. However, overall we can see a shift in how people interact, react and deal with life. What solidified the lack of social interaction were the COVID times. We were all impacted in different ways but younger generations were truly robbed from formative years both at school and at their work place. Former U.S. Surgeon-General Vivek Murthy observed that young people in the UK “are less comfortable” with face-to-face interactions due to heavy reliance on digital platforms. The Kahoot! ZetaPulse study found 90% of Gen Z employees experience social discomfort at work; 35% deal with social anxiety nearly every day. Additionally, 44% feel uneasy about presenting, and 38% struggle to voice opinions during meetings.
Why is this shift important?
This is not a piece created to pick on Gen Z and poke holes. This aims to start a discussion. Gen Z are the first generation to be growing up on screen - fully. So it is only logical that they will be the first to exhibit the change and show us what is to come. Aside from a very small percentage of the population that feel comfortable being hermits, most of us are social creatures by nature. This shift in society is fundamentally robbing us of the opportunity to feel at ease in our day to day life. Many people recognise the lack of social interaction they are experiencing and are acknowledging it on some level, yet they are not equipped with the tools to break through the anxiety and make a real change. Which leads to a vicious cycle of social anxiety, both personally and professionally. As a people leader with many years of experience, I have seen it first hand in team members who are just embarking on their career journeys. The inability to connect, concentrate and communicate in a constructive way is dominant. Not out of malice but due to lack of basic and fundamental human skills being under developed due to digital penetration.
The world we live in today lacks community, meaning it allows our actions to remain ‘unseen’ by people that we conider to be ‘our tribe’. Back in the day, let’s say my parents generation, everything used to happen in a community - family, cousins, neighbours, clubs. People rarely left their home towns at the rate we do today. When they dated, worked or enjoyed leisure activities it was all happening within a community. That community also held them accountable in an invisible way. If one member did something wrong, it was noticed, it was frowned upon and there were consequences. It allowed them to build close connections that lasted a life time and the impact of those connections truly mattered in their lives. Hence why there was a sense of duty, honour and desire to remain a part of the community.
The role of community
Nowadays, we interact in a digital world, which as beautiful and vast as it is, it does not keep us accountable. This is why dating apps are so controversial at the end of the day. Respond, do not respond - who cares, you do not need to face the person if you do not want to. We meet and interact with people all over the world, the values and traditions of community are diminishing every day. If you are talking to someone (it does not need to be a romantic connection) in another area, town, country, continent and decided to cut the connection tomorrow - there is no real fall out for you. There are no common friends, you do not frequent the same places, the likelihood of consequences are very small. Cutting digital connections is easy, it means very little. This concept then spreads in every single human interaction and creates this lack of accountability and understanding for basic human principles. This is where the generational clash is coming because we have the generations that grew up with the community, the generations that slowly deviated from it and the generation that has no idea about it.
I am a believer in technology and progress. I think it has given us so much as society. As with everything though, it has a downside. We rely on it too much, it is robbing us of real interaction and it is destroying the social fabric of society. I think we went through the Renaissance of Digital. When Google became a part of life, followed by Facebook it allowed us to access information and friendships in a way, we could not have imagined to be this easy. We reconnected with people we had met and lost contact with, we started having access to the world through a blank page with a search bar and we started to create ecommerce - the internet, the development of digital and tech gave all of us an incredible opportunity to connect and create. Until recently.
How can we preserve human connection?
The internet is becoming the biggest distractor away from connection, critical thinking and communication skills. We now chat to our friends instead of making the effort to see them for coffee, a walk or brunch. We feel like we have access to credible information/news/connection by watching people on TikTok. This is not how it works, we have entered the negative sum game of the age of the internet. To preserve human connection, make an effort. AI is coming fast and strong into every single touch point of our digital world. It is slowly but seamlessly removing the need for human interaction even more. Why? Because we now value efficiency more than humanity. Do you see the bank branches, network provider branches, clothing shops etc slowly disappearing off the high street? This is because most of us prefer to have a lay in in scroll on our phones to make the purchases. Chat to an AI to upgrade or downgrade our contracts. Use digital banking etc… I am not denying efficinecy. It is absolutely beautiful to be able to do mundane things faster. The problem is that instead of allowing us to have more time for connection, walks in nature, art and creativity, it is creating an isolated society that cannot live without their devices.
A society that cannot interact in a meaningful way. In order to preserve human connection at this point in time, we need start making a conscious effort. The same way we make conscious efforts to eat healthy, go to the gym or take time to relax.
Make time to speak to someone new every day
When someone tries to push a flyer in your hand, smile and say thank you even if you do not take it
Spend time having meaningful conversations with the people around you
Be present
Ask your colleague how was their weekend and truly mean to hear the answer and engage with it
Make a plan to see someone in person, stop just chatting and hearting their stories
Remember that progress, creativity, human connection and the survival of society does depend on social interaction. Cherish it and be a pioneer in preserving it.
