Today, the rate of technological advancement is faster than ever. Artificial Intelligence has already started taking up a place in our homes. Self driving cars are not too far away! Smart devices and Intelligent Homes are the future. And yes, they connect us in ways we can’t even imagine! It’s like a mind map spread across the world.
But let’s pause here. Along with this technologically connected world what it needs of us is to be on our gadgets close to 6 to 8 hours a day. A recent survey shows how this excess information is loading our brains with data almost like a computer with multiple folders open. Thus brain chemically increases dopamine which causes stress, anxiety, depression and loss of recent memory. Our urge to be on our technological devices makes us a prey to instant gratification. We create an image that we want to portray on social media versus our real one which causes an identity crisis
This creates what I believe a state of Human Pollution where our brains, our relationships are getting polluted as an outcome of the misuse of technology. Technology is created as a performance enhancer. Today the social media giant ‘Facebook’ had to face severe criticism for their lack of consideration for the protection of its million users’ privacy. That is rather ironical because facebook was started with the intention of making the world a smaller place by bringing people closer. But somewhere along the way we have lost that connection.
Today whether its technological advances, social media platforms or organizational strategy, it needs humanness at the center. Uber used the Blue Ocean Strategy for itself but it got mired in controversies due to the lack of consideration for their employees and customers. It included humanness with the option of being able to share the ride status. It has shown its accountability and consideration for their customer’s safety. It has married technology with humanness. Alexa and Siri are also loved by its customers because of their humanness.
What humanness means is to maintain Empathy and the Emotional Quotient of technology. It is the ability to have real human connections full of serotonin and reaching out to people in the real world.
We have moved from human beings to human doings. And the question you have to ask yourself and I have to ask myself is ‘Are we going to just sit back or are we going to move forward and reclaim our journey of being humans, reclaim our journey of having these human connections?’ ‘What is the legacy we would like to leave behind for our children and the generations to come?’ ‘What kind of a world would we like to make?’ Would it be of cold robots that would be a milestone in Artificial Intelligence or would we allow the space for humanness to co-exist in that world?’
It’s time we start moving from Human Pollution to Human Evolution.
