eye contact

In the past month or so, I’ve delivered several seminars on the topic of social media and personal branding to a variety of groups. During the sessions we usually have a healthy discussion about respect, and how we need to pay attention to how we treat each other, both on and offline. I am always impressed when students comment on how we have lost our social skills because of social media. That’s the moment I know there is hope for future generations!

I have heard some say that without face-to-face communication, it’s more difficult to respect someone as there is still a feeling we can “hide” behind our computers. I even ran across this article the other day, “Growing social media influence damaging our generation,” written by a University of Wisconsin, Madison student. This also gives me hope that young adults, as much as they love their phones and tablets, still crave eye contact and recognize the importance of in-person conversations.

Here’s another article from Inc. Magazine talking about The Lost Art of Eye Contact. As much as I am fascinated by all of the possibilities to connect with people online, and from all over the world, I remain convinced that we need to work just as much on our relationships offline and eyeball to eyeball as we do cultivating connections through technology. What are your thoughts?