In last month’s blog, I discussed what I call ‘no-normal’ dynamics and their impact on all of us collectively and organizationally. But, what about the effect on each of us individually? What about the interpersonal impact?

We Are All Connected

Technology has played the single largest role of the no-normal era. Indeed, it has transformed our very lives and we are all connected in some way.

Consider this:

• There are almost five billion cell phones in use on the planet today.
• Seven trillion text messages were sent and received last year.
• There are one and a half billion functioning televisions globally.
• There are one billion broadband subscriptions in place.
• The first billion personal computers took 27 years to find their homes.
• The second billion PCs sold in seven years.

This data’s effect is staggering — there are more young people with cell phones than books.

Just as explosive as cell phones, has been the growth of television. There are now 10 million television channels feeding one and a half billion TVs that have broadband subscriptions in place. This growth in programming has almost doubled in the last two years. And, it’s incredible that there are 10 million channels of programming operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There is nothing inherently good or bad in the explosion of technology and its applications. It is the world in which we live, work and play. But, where will it all end?

Those in the know believe that computing hardware capable of inexpensively matching the power of the human brain will be available in the 2020s. And, we will soon be able to buy the hardware to mimic our own organic computing capacity for under $1,000.

The Technology Paradox: Losing the Ability to Connect

The term “wetware” is an abstraction used in the computer world to describe the central nervous system — our brain. The tech paradox goes beyond just hardware and it’s a wonder that we still know how to talk to each other.

Here’s a scenario:

“I participated in a webinar for a client this morning who told us that while on the call she had three screens active on her desk; one for e-mail, one for the project she’s working on and a third screen split in two with the market on top and social media on the bottom. She also had an iPhone on her desk that had had its ringer turned off.”

Sound familiar?

We know that hardware and wetware are irrevocably intertwined. Not only do we enjoy our electronic companions (“I love my new phone.”), but most would also agree that we now need them. We need this technology and not just to satisfy some addiction. We need it to carry on with everyday life in a no-normal, no-service economy. Someone else’s backroom work is now our shadow work. Welcome to your personal no-normal. There is no getting around the fact that we don’t have the option to live without technology. But, what is technology doing to us?

Empathy: The Organic Connection

This integration of hardware and wetware comes at a cost. The more we connect electronically, the less we connect personally. We are losing the ability to connect with each other. This is not conjecture. This is a fact.

The important issue here is the loss of the empathic connection with those who matter to us. We lose awareness of one another. Empathy is the direct identification with another person’s situation, feelings and motives. The empathy connection, the belief that you understand and acknowledge another person — that you not only viscerally understand but also care — organically exists between us, almost without our trying.

To understand empathy, think about what happens to you when you watch a heavy hit during a hockey game. Or, how do you react—emotionally and even physiologically—when you see a mixed martial arts cage match or a blooper reel of skateboarders landing face first on the concrete on TV? Do you cringe? Does your pulse quicken and your blood pressure rise? Do your muscles flex and tense up and in some instances, do you react so strongly that you have to shift position, stand up, remind yourself to breathe and finally change the channel?

This is what we mean by understanding and being sensitive to the experiences of another person. This action of connecting with another human being is empathy. And, it’s not just brutality or another’s pain that we connect to.

The paradox is that along with our explosive rise in electronic connectivity, there has been a decline in our organic connectivity. We’ve lost a lot of it already and that alone is the most significant individualized impact of the no-normal world.

The Empathy Crash of 2000

Based on research with more than 14,000 college students, we know that people today do not connect with each other as they did 30 years ago. We don’t understand in the same way and we don’t care in the same way. Through 30 years of studies reviewed by the University of Michigan’s renowned Institute for Social Research, we know that empathy remained constant from the late 1970s on. Then, right around the turn of the century, it dropped—crashing by 40%.

Consider what it means that we don’t care as much as we used to. I did and to find out more first-hand, I interviewed the woman who conducted the research. My next blog discusses what I found out.