I found this video on Aaron’s site.

In my last job, I packed home a laptop every evening and occasionally worked from home.  What I did, determined how phone calls were routed for many internationally known companies.  I am just old enough to find that sort of mind boggling.

About three years ago, I began to blog, something, which up until then, I thought was really stupid.  Soon it fulfilled a needed outlet for self expression and connection and I was hooked.  Every once and awhile I would wonder if it was a worthy activity, but would always come back to it, essentially deciding that it was useful.  I hit several busy months and my daily posts became weekly visits and now I have moderated to posting about three times a week as a kind of personal therapy, self discipline, and opportunity to connect with some interesting people.

This digital world of connection applications and social media is constantly developing.  Blogs were the big deal, then YouTube, then My Space, then Facebook, and then Twitter.  Now applications that help applications talk to each other are popular.  Like all new media, it has created new opportunities and new problems.  Now employers troll the net to find out more about prospective employees.  Privacy is forever lost.  It is no longer sensible to pour out heart on some issues on the net, perhaps, it never was.  Of course, these new technologies provide new avenues for advertising which is what fuels them with profitability.

I am a gadget guy with, complete with iPhone, iPod, digital cameras, Flip video camera, etc.  I truly enjoy that stuff, but sometimes, I get over “technologized” and just have to pull away.   As cool as all of this stuff is, I am so much more energized by a good face-to-face conversation or an accomplishment in the real world.

One of the concerns I have is that most people younger than me would rather text somebody than talk to them.  It seems like we have made communication increasingly impersonal, whether it is customer service, which has become laughable for many companies, or communicating with a friend.  It is as if we don’t want to have to talk to anyone or communicate in more than 140 characters.

Technology has given people the opportunity to connect on a meaningful level who may have never known each other if it did not exist.  But is has also depersonalized communication in a way that keeps people from relating to one another in ways that are the most meaningful  I fear those important relational and communication skills are dying off from atrophy.