Are We Becoming Robots?
We can no longer hope to stay away from technology. In fact, the other day I read an article that talked about the setting up of video conferencing facilities in a hospital thus allowing doctors to talk to their patients.
The flood of new technology hitting the market has been criticized by anti-technology advocates that claim humans are becoming more and more like robots. Are these seemingly wonderful technology advances slowly turning us into robotic machines? It is a very interesting debate question.
But I challenge that technology is not changing us but rather we are changing it. Notice the movement towards more social experiences with computers such as web 2.0 and the rise of social sites like My Space, Facebook, and Twitter. Think of the example of a hospital using video conferencing with patients over a phone. We already have the phone to communicate so if it was just a communications issue, there would be no need for video conferencing. But it is not. We are taking the phone and making it more social, more human by building on the technology of the phone to create a more personal, in person like experience where facial expressions can actually be seen.
Moving out of the health sector and into business, we find the same trends taking place. Many people are critical of capitalism and call business a heartless but necessary evil. But is this really true? All the latest marketing seminars teach about the new hot social marketing tools out there, specifically: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
While technologies like email and even video conferencing have existed for years, the best sales people know that if you really want to close the deal, you need a face to face meeting. The most important meetings in the business world take place in person to person conference rooms or offices and most likely always will.
Now conference calls are very much like a meeting. At times, a conference call is better than a meeting especially when people that you need in the meeting are located in different countries around the world. Airfare and accommodating participants with a room is very expensive. Toll free audio conferencing would be the way to go in this circumstance. There are also meeting enhancement technologies provided by companies like Star Teleconferencing Service where additional value can be added to a meeting.
Previously, conference calls could only be audio. However, audio-visual conference calls have been rising up the popularity charts. In all the technological advances, people continue to hanker for the personal touch.
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