We spend a lot of time talking about technology silos like cloud, big data, mobile, and social. But when we strip away the talk and look at the basics, technology is a mere enabler of better communication. Think of it this way: Do we reach to our devices because we love technology? Nope. We do it because we want to be more connected, more communicative, and more responsive to the world around us. Our tech devices help make us more aware of what’s going on in the world.
The desire for communication is nothing new. In fact, technology has little to do with our ability to understand and catalogue emotions – that’s something we’ve been doing since the dawn of humankind, and long before the advent of the Internet, social media, and texting.
We certainly have to give props to technology for aiding in our communication efforts. Tech advancements have made communication so easy, so smooth, and so much more advanced. Prior to the tech boom, it was pretty hard to imagine talking face-to-face from your desk with your clients living on the other side of the world – or that you could take part in your friend’s fancy Hawaiian wedding without leaving home.
Technology is making all this – and a lot more – possible in the communication space, and it impacts our personal lives and our work. The biggest technologies have changed the face of communication and have also given us new ways of communicating effectively.
Social Media: A New Face of Communication
It’s hard to find someone who isn’t on Facebook. In fact, most people around me have their eyes glued to their phones, busying themselves with tweets or updating statuses. But that’s just a miniscule part of the whole picture. The nature of communication that transpires on social networking sites is an amazingly wide-ranging one.
You can journal the best moments of life and share them with your loved ones. You can circulate information among your friends and relatives. You can collaborate with your colleagues or interact with your clients. It’s no wonder people and businesses are seizing every opportunity to communicate via social media. According to a Pew Research study, 71% of online U.S. adults use Facebook, and everyone is craving connection.
Internet: Information at Your Fingertips
Since the advent of the internet, an entire culture has grown up around the possibilities of keeping in touch on the web. To say that internet has given us access to a vast sea of knowledge and information would be an understatement. Now with the Internet of Things and the big data boom, the internet has not only become a virtual living entity, but an inseparable part of our lives.
Businesses can easily take advantage of these new opportunities to enhance their knowledge about their customers and design their products and services around their preferences.
Collaboration Tech: Bringing People Closer
Audiovisual technologies have redefined face-to-face interactions like never before. People are increasingly connecting via Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts on their own time. In the business landscape, video meetings are fast replacing in-person meetings, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. With the recent boom in wearable tech devices, people can now connect and communicate while barely moving a muscle.
The proliferation of technology is affecting the commercial integration business in so many ways. If you aren’t already viewing technology as a vehicle for communication rather than a product to sell, you’re a step behind.
When we utilize tech for our businesses and our lives, we aren’t doing so to solve technology problems. We are solving communication and business problems. –Dan Newman, BroadSuite Consulting