1.
The
good news is that social media helps young people more tech savvy. If given a
challenge of learning new software or app they are comfortable. They can also make quick “shallow” decisions
getting through and responding to emails and texts and amazingly fast rates.
They can also find information quickly. They are more likely to
love new information, new technology and new technical
challenges. They are comfortable looking at a how to video and completely a
task. But they can be bored
with routine and they can think that knowing facts and
information about topic means they are competent and even an expert on the
topic. They can be quick to judge others who do now have the technology savvy
or speed.
2.
Social
media can pervert what you think is appropriate to share and not share with
others. The odd anonymity and the one way communication makes you focus on
yourself.
3. If you use social media a
lot a work you may think you can do everything through email or text so you don’t
give face-to-face time to create trust. Recent research by Gregory
Northcraft, a professor in executive leadership at the University of Illinois,
shows when projects are managed by way of detached, high-tech means rather than
face-to-face, people will have less confidence that others will do what they
say they’ll do. He says if your communication is mainly through email,
coworkers will trust you less. Face-to-face contact yields the most trust and
cooperation while e-mail nets the least, with videoconference interaction
ranking somewhere in between. Your boss and coworkers need to be face-to- face
to read the thousands of non-verbal cues that give them a read of you and help
them decide the best way to interact with you.
4.
If
you don’t socialize face to face, spend time with team members or your boss you
work may be invisible to others. Remember you not only need the trust that
face to face time creates as mentioned above you need it for people to
see you work, what you have accomplish and what you can accomplish.
5. You
are "Uber" brief and direct and focus on your needs first
instead of considering the other person before you focus on yourself.
6.
If
young people overuse technology they don’t have the “band with” in their brains
to handle stress. And since they are laying down neural pathways to the ego
centers of the brain by being on technology they are not laying down strong
broader neural pathways to the social centers of the brain this makes them
uncomfortable communicating face to face and have trouble forming good working
relationships and handling stress in the workplace. (The science of that is
outlined below.)
Why
Technology is Stressing Us Out? Technology and the Brain
I was speaking at a private school recently and the teacher updated me on some of the latest research on the
brain being done at Emory University. It is very interesting so stick with
it.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. This is kind neural pathways that young people are
forming the most.
- If
we don’t have focused attention and deep social bonds and 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. Any one that uses
technology a lot can form more shallow narrow pathways and therefore have
less ability to think and function under stress.
