The Internet of things requires us to make face time

• July 19, 2011

By Alexandra Reid

I watched a mesmerizing documentary the night before last called Future Intelligence that examined how smart technology will eventually be embedded everywhere, including our clothing, furniture, cars and even our contact lenses. Futurists, including Ray Kurzeil, predicted that within 50 years, entire cities will be connected to the web and things will communicate with each other with their own artificial intelligence. Yesterday, as reported by ReadWriteWeb, Cisco stated that by 2020, there will be 50 billion “things” connected to the Internet, including everything from your body, car and alarm clock to cows.

We are already inventing technology that is smarter, stronger and faster than us, and giving it the power to communicate. Cisco is currently developing connected city buses that will communicate with the Internet to give passengers information on location, estimated time of arrival and the ability to surf the web through touch screens. Soon, the buses will be equipped with smart technology to reduce collisions and emissions and help drivers avoid congestion, locate points of interest and contact emergency services.

We are also enhancing our own bodies with technology that is connected to the internet. The University of Washington is currently creating a smart contact lens that incorporates electronic devices. Its creators say that you will soon be able to surf the internet and keep track of your health from the transparent lens mounted on your eye. Current consumer technology, such as smart phones and social tools, also act as extensions of ourselves, enabling us to have a greater impact on the world around us. Without this blog, I wouldn’t be able to share my thoughts with you. My social networks keep me in contact with family and old friends who have drifted to other parts of the world and help me communicate with new people with whom I may not otherwise have had the opportunity to speak. My cell phone allows me to organize activities with others on the go and helps ensure my safety by allowing me to contact authorities and for them to locate me if I go missing. Sharing content through these tools also helps us understand one another and the world around us, making us accountable to each other in a way that has never been experienced before.

And let’s not forget our entertainment. Games are becoming increasingly more interactive, enabling users to control characters on screen using their bodies, and even minds while also communicating with other gamers around the world. We are linking ourselves into our technologically driven virtual worlds in ways that make the barrier between artificial and reality progressively more blurred. As I’ve discussed before, gamification is creeping into our day-to-day activities. When we pump gas or buy groceries, we get rewarded with points that accumulate on virtual accounts. Our real lives are being blurred with our online existences, as we associate our number of Twitter followers with our real-world network of people, and Facebook likes with human approval.

Smart technology is a double-edged sword

However, even as a frequent user and supporter of social tools, I find connectivity overwhelming and sometimes rather daunting. I fear moving towards a world of technological dependence and constant virtual connection. I appreciate being alone, but I also regard real face time as essential and valuable to living a healthy life. Using technology enhances our capabilities, but it also takes away other forms of valuable communication and leaves us vulnerable. I worry that as we become accustomed to using technology to communicate and operate our lives, we will place less emphasis on the importance of real human interaction and forever lose the skills required to live without technology.

As the Internet of things increases, our technology is making us move ever faster and it’s becoming more difficult for  us to disconnect. Sixty-two percent of respondents to a survey for a new research guide on The Creative Team of the Future said they expect creative professionals will work more hours over the next years, and 85 percent anticipate that by 2016 they will be more connected to the office outside of business hours. Anticipating that collaboration tools will become more accessible and affordable, 84 percent of survey respondents said a greater number of creative professionals would work remotely in the next three to five years. It seems social technology is a doubled edged-sword, increasing speed, organization and connectivity while leaving us with less time for ourselves and face-to-face interaction.

The value of face time

I watched another documentary, of a much lighter tone, by BBC called The Human Face. Hosted by John Cleese, this four-part series examined the mysteries of identity and perception revealed through our expressions, and that face-to-face interaction is fundamental to our development and understanding of one another. In a world of six-billion faces, yours, like a snowflake, is unique, revealing your personality, genetic and cultural identity, mental and physical health and what you are really feeling inside when you communicate. While avatars provide a decent representation of our faces, they do not reveal the subtle expressions required for us to really know each other. While text allows us to share information and communicate, it does not reveal the undertones that inform us of a person’s true position and attitude. Skype is a technology that allows us to communicate face-to-face, and I value it, but it’s still only a dim replacement for real human interaction because it does not reward and inform us with sensory information such as touch.

Touch is vital to growing a healthy person and something we lose when we place technology between face-to-face interaction. Harry Harlow’s rather disturbing experiment, where he isolated infant monkeys and studied their behaviour, proved that we all need physical connection to others in order to grow into healthy adults. Maybe one day technology will mimic touch, too, but it could never be as good and healthy as the real thing, in my opinion, as our sensory systems took billions of years to form.

Technology has been linked to all kinds of physical, mental and social disorders. This year, cell phones were proven to be linked with cancer. Google rots your brain. Young people are becoming addicted to online “social” games such as World of Warcraft and some are neglecting their bodies so much they are dying, while others are becoming depressed and committing suicide. Technology has also been linked to obesity and attention deficit disorder, among other issues.

We need to make an effort to connect face to face

As communications professionals who work in the social media space, we especially must make an effort to moderate our time with technology and meet up with our online connections in the flesh in order to maximize the benefits that real relationships offer. All of the disorders I mentioned above develop from excessive and obsessive use of technology. We’ve got to take time away from our screens, get outside, exercise and socialize with real people to maintain a healthy balance. Social networks can be trivial and rather shallow if we are only following others to get them to follow us back or increase numbers to prove in some half-witted way that social media works in order to justify the budget to our superiors. The social media meetups I attend here in Ottawa, including Social Media Breakfast, Third Tuesday, Zone5ive and a community manager group have proved invaluable to me because of the face time I have with other attendees. They teach me things, remember me and support me emotionally throughout my journey as a young communications professional. I can’t say the same for three quarters of my Twitter followers, but I’d like to.

Despite the pains, I feel optimistic about the future of smart technology. In so many ways it has improved our lives tremendously and I find it utterly fascinating. However, technology does oppose natural order and so we’ve got to make an effort to ensure we strike a balance between the screen and reality. As we continue to become connected through technology, we can’t lose sight of the value of face-to-face engagements and real social relationships. What do you think?

Photo: SmallBiz Technology