By Rachel Rooney, Toppel Peer Advisor
All of the technology in the world today—computers,
smart phones, tablets—have great benefits. However, I’ve noticed that it is
changing our ability to communication with one another. In one sense, we are
able to communicate more globally
with people all around the world. And we are able to communicate easier—a
simple text gets the message across. However, with all of this I can’t help
feeling as though we are losing something. I’ve made an observation on when I am
standing in line for an event or in an elevator with other people or in a room
for a meeting with people I don’t know. I’ve noticed that people who don’t know
each other don’t talk to one another. Instead, we pull out our cell phones. And
even that is making us talk less; calling each other is out of fashion, texting
is in, but that doesn’t mean we are communicating better.
When we do interviewing workshops at Toppel, we ask
the famous “tell me about yourself” question. We advise students to answer it
the following way: state your name, where you are from, your degree, your year,
your leadership experience, and why you think you are a good fit for the job
you are applying for. This is known as an elevator
pitch. Basically, what you would tell someone if you had from the top floor
of an elevator to the ground floor. And if the someone person was the CEO of
your dream company.
I also think that we are at risk for losing
something greater than networking; we are losing our stories. There is the
history of communication; it began with talking. Before people could write
information down or before typewriters or computers were invented, there were
words. So the next time you are in a place with unfamiliar people, take the
time to get to know them. There are over 7 billion people in this world; you
are not going to get to know everyone, so be grateful for the chance to have
the people in your life that you do have. You have so much to gain. Over the
summer, I worked with college age students from all over the world—Japan,
China, Spain, Colombia, Malaysia, Moldova, and America. There was a little bit
of the language barrier, but I took the time to learn some key phrases in each
of the different languages. I will know some of the amazing people I met there
for the rest of my life. Gif Fach,
for example is how you pronounce “how are you” in Romanian. University of Miami
is the most diverse university in the United States and has many students come
to study on exchanges. Study abroad is also a great way to network with people
around the world.
I am not here to discredit technology as a form of
networking or communicating, but I think we are starting to use it a little too
much. People are addicted to their phones. If I asked you if you could live 48
hours without your phone, would you be able to? I think many of you would say
no. We don’t have to live without our phones, but you should be able to put
them down, especially when you are talking to people. The truth is that you
don’t need to be on technology all the time. Take a break and talk to people.
I was inspired to write this post, by an article I
read in Forbes and by one in Riskology. The Forbes article is on the importance
of small talk and the Riskology article is on the importance of talking to
strangers.
For an interesting article by Medical Health on how
cell phones are affecting students, read here:
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