I think the power of persuasion
would be the greatest superpower of all time.
– Jenny Mollen
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Tag Archives: communication
Joke of the day – Fish connection
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words
but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?”
– Winnie the Pooh
“The great myth of our times is that technology is communication.”
– Libby Larsen
Quote of the day – Albert Einstein
“A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.”
– Albert Einstein
Joke of the day – Divorce
The pretty young wife was suing for divorce.
“On what grounds?” asked her solicitor. “You’ve got to have grounds”.
“But we do,” she assured him. “Yes we have large grounds, a 20-hectare block.”
“No, no,” he said. “Do you have a grudge?”
“Yes, we have a double garage because we have two cars”.
“No, no,” said the solicitor, near exasperation. “Does he beat you up?”
“Never,” she said. “I’m always up at six, and he sleeps in till ten sometimes.”
The solicitor finally grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Reasons!” he shouted. “What are your reasons?”
“Oh, we don’t seem to be able to communicate,” she said.
Mobile phones
I was walking in the park recently and it was filled with people talking on their mobile phones. They were passing other people without looking at them, saying hello, noticing their babies or stopping to pet their puppies. Evidently the electronic voice is preferable to human contact. The telephone used to connect us to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent.
Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected we feel? Every advance in mobile technology is a setback to the intimacy of human interaction. With e-mail and instant messaging over the internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. We have stopped talking to one another. Pumping petrol at the station? Why say good morning to the attendant when you can swipe your credit card at the pump? Making deposit at the bank? Why talk to the teller who might live in the neighbourhood when you can insert your card at the ATM?
I do not loathe communications technology. I own a mobile phone, an ATM card e-mail account. Giving them up isn’t an option. They are great for what they are intended to do. It is their unintended consequences that make me cringe.
So, I have put myself on technology restriction: no talking on the mobile during mealtimes, no instant messaging with people who live near me, no talking on the mobile in the presence of friends.
I guess I still like the basic human contact and I think it is important.
“Basic human contact – the meeting of eyes, the exchanging of words – is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. If you’re feeling abandoned by the world, interact with anyone you can.”
– Martha Beck
