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Respecting Different Generations in the Workplace. Why We Are Addicted to Our Technology. Why Tech Use May Affect Our Relationships and Decision Making


One of the simple tips to working with different generations in the workplace is to train and lead employees to recognize and respect what each generation has to offer and what they need rather than negating or ignoring pushing to be whatever the leader thinks is normal. For example, if a generation Y has been raised on technology their brains have been wired to make quick “Shallow” decisions like, "I want this text and I don’t want that one."

They will have more trouble interacting face to face and may have trouble making decisions under stress. So for them, know that requesting that they go down the hall and talk to Joe is like asking them to get on a dog sled, yell, "Mush" to the huskies, ride up to Alaska, and over to Siberia and speak Russian to Joe. They may think that’s too hard and scary, and or ridiculous when they can message him on their phone instead.” Respect the fact that they can process thousands of tech messages a day and if you need them to interact face to face you need to approach it like they need training in a completely different language and culture or say a totally different technology or software and spend the same amount of time and effort to help them learn how to do it as you would those huge shifts in how to work. 



Why We Are Addicted to Our Technology.
Why Tech Use May Affect Our Relationships and Decision Making

When you interact with a technological device you make what is labeled in the research “quick shallow decisions”, such as, “I want this text. I don't want this text. ““I want this website it’s interesting. I don't want this one it’s boring” “I want to take this call.” “I don’t want to take this call.”
The front of the brain (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex if you want to know the five-dollar term) that helps us make decisions and integrates complex information and short term memory are activated, so we can make a quick go or no-go decisions. It’s called Continual Partial Attention. It allows us to keep tabs on everything, but never really focus on anything.
 These quick shallow decisions lay down pathways to the ego centers of your brain. In fact, doing so gives you a bit of a hit of a chemical high. If you find yourself hunched over your electronic device or see a coworker that can’t seem to stay focused as he checks his device while he is supposed to be having a conversation with you, or the teenager that listens to music while texting on another device and talking on his cell. Well, guess what? This rewiring for partial attention causes a techno addiction. We stay busy attending. We want that new bit of news or information to keep us excited and high and it feeds our self-worth. Yep, it feeds the part of the hippocampus that enlarges our ego. It actually makes us cocky enough to rudely answer a cell phone call when we are in a meeting or out with a friend or family member. Techno's business is dark chocolate, caffeine, and heroin-like ego-boosting high.
So when you check your phone when you are bored or stressed. If not only gives you a chemical boost you get high, feel in control and because you are getting a hit to the ego centers of the brain it makes you feel superior to those around you.
You can now understand why people are constantly checking their phones, especially when they are stressed or have no other activity or are bored and why techno jerk doing it rudely seems irritated and uncomfortable to have asked him to stop interacting with his phone or gets irritated when you want to talk with him face to face. Unfortunately, to successfully make quick shallow decisions you are laying done pathways to the ego portion of the brain and having the face-to-face interactions that lay down pathways to the social centers of the brain. You’re laying your tracks down to the ego center that produces that nice addictive high but interpersonal communication becomes more difficult and may even feel like an inferior means of interacting. Something you are "above" having to do. “
Again, when you talk to other people face-to-face you lay down neural pathways to the social centers of your brain.  The more you interact interpersonally human to human the stronger the pathways become. Meeting people and talking to them becomes easier and you become more skilled and confident. And researchers have found that the pathways to the social centers are superhighways that stay strong and work even under stress while the pathways we form when we make quick shallow decisions are weak and so fragile they break down when we are under stress.

Why Technology is Stressing Us Out? Technology and the Brain

  1. The pruning of (reduction) neural pathways in the brain when we are young is based on how we use our brain. The brain prunes pathways we don’t use and keeps the neural pathways we use the most.
  2. The ones laid down when we are highly focused on activities like reading a book or having a deep conversation are deeper and have more capacity like wide superhighways. They can handle more information overload when we are under stress like a highway can handle more cars in commute time than a surface road.
  3. The neural pathways laid down for the quick shallow decisions we make when we are on technology such as, “I want this email I don’t want this one.” “I want this website in my Google search I don’t want that one.” are shallow and thin pathways that actually break apart under stress because of their low capacity, like a bridge could collapse if too many cars and trucks are on it at the same time. These are the kind  neural pathways that young people are forming the most. And the kind that form in anyone who spends hours day making quick shallow decisions on technology.
  4. If we don’t have focused attention and deep social bonds and enough face to face interactions therefore only have the shallow, narrow, neural pathways formed with our use of technology we have trouble handling stress. We may feel overwhelmed and helpless and unable to make a decision. We may have panic attacks, freeze in place, get sick or call our mommies for help. Anyone that uses technology a lot can form more shallow narrow pathways and therefore have less ability to think and function under stress. Even having a phone or other device of yours in the same room has been shown to create distraction and partial attention thereby reduce you cognition and memory ability, making it difficult for you to solve problems and make decisions!!!




Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.