Slashdot Mirror
Too Much Tech Diminishes Work Relationships?
Lansdowne writes "The Seattle Times has an article today on Tim Sanders, a Yahoo exec who claims too much technology may be bad for your health. According to Sanders, small groups of engineers who went to completely electronic communication in their workgroups became 'very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people.'"
'very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people.' in other words, nothing changed
...I learned from Maxis' The Sims. If your or your Sim's social bar drops too low, bad things happen.
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
Everyone has always been claiming that once we are all "connected" we will in fact lose our "connection" to the human race. Sure, I am 100% connected, my cellphone lets me surf the web while playing with my IPod and chatting on my laptop while hax0ring a wireless LAN at the hotel down the road. And yes, I am depressed, but thinking back a ways, I always felt that way. It seems like everyone I meet is turned off by all the pr0n I view.
My computer talks to me...
Isn't that right sweetie?
Perhaps the "very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people" are simply attracted to technology, and not necessary a product of it...?
Remember: If you buy anything from spammers, you have a small penis.
I don't think that being "very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people" is caused by the electronics. We're just drawn to the stuff BECAUSE we're very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people.
But hey, what do I know, I'm just a very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant Engineering student.
First off, the experiment involves the fast reduction of quantity of several social relationships. Socialization is habit-forming. You could get the same effect from taking a small group of pot smokers and switching them to tobacco. Second off, the conclusion is fallacious. The problem supposedly demonstrated is not so much too much technology as too little socialization, though for my money, the problem is the sudden removal of habit-forming face-to-face interpersonal communcication.
machines are going to take over the world ... so those anti-social rejects are just laying the groundwork for their future girlfriends...
I have noticed that as I have done most of my work remote this last year (remote desktop technologies instead of onsite visits, IM and e-mail instead of phone discussions) that I have become a surly bugger.
It has started to carry into my regular life: people are interruptions not whatever they used to be...
And here I am posting to slash.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Maybe some people dont want to have to interact socially, and messaging your colleague from five feet away certainly severs all social ties. And email is now such an important part of our lives that we use it to exchange information almost as much as we talk face to face. Without email, a good part of the business of any company would immediately be halted due to lack of communication.
Using instant messaging also a more convenient and faster way to interact, although it will never measure up to a real conversation.
to explain why this article is complete nonsense but I'm too depressed, feel the world is against me and I really dont feel like talking to anyone. Plus I just got a new laptop to play with.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
"He began to have relationship difficulties at work because he used e-mail, at one point, to communicate everything to his employees, be it good or bad."
This quote from the article makes me wonder whether we're reading too much into it. This is someone who replaced face to face communication with his employees. That's not a problem with technology: that's him being irrespsonsible.
I think (hope) that we all know there's a time and place for technology. Things like employee appraisals and agreeing big pieces of work should really be done face to face.
The question that we thought was being answered was whether having more technological gadgets would create problems for people in themselves?
I'm in the camp who believe that technology actually improves relationships when used appropriately, rather than damages him.
Friends overseas? It's a shame they're not here, but I can use ICQ to keep in touch with them.
Feel like a drink? I can call around my friends to see who's around.
Really want the obnoxious sex-mad guy to come? Just snap a photo/video of the cute girl next to you and he'll be along in a jiffy.
People can do more, in less time, with more people.
Everyone wins. Especially the communications companies.
overcome anxiety, spell, use proper grammar, conjugate verbs correctly, capitalize, or explain acronyms, because the person on the other side of the IM knows exactly what you are talking about. This is not so in everyday social situations, unfortunately...
This comment was randomly generated by a school of piranhas chewing on the PCB of a Microsoft Natural Keyboard.
This is a textbook example of FUD.
Adults need to be responsible for their lives. Yeah, sounds obvious but apparently people are still lost on this point.
Everything has a time and a place. Keep everything in its time and place and keeping your sanity is easy. Get sunshine. Go to the beach. If that's not possible, try a municipal pool.
Life isn't complicated. People in this article want to make it complicated because at some point along the way, they'll profit.
If you stay up until sunrise, down gallons of caffeine and live in chat rooms then that's your decision. The consequences might be depression and isolation. Those who don't like it need to change the variables in their life program.
Laws are for people with no friends.
Here is another link describing the same event. Its not quite as negative about the technology, but stronger on the need for a peculiar emotion called love.
lonely - certainly, since they get less face-to-face contact ;)
depressed - maybe, especially if they're feeling lonely
negative - Windows desktops will do that to you, they've done it to me
anti-social - it helps us be lazy and stay within our small team
brilliant - makes them brilliant? I doubt that. You're either brilliant or you're not. Modes of communication can't change that.
Developers: We can use your help.
very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people
Proof that contact with the masses dumbs you down. ^_^
common sense: noun
What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
I work at a large web hosting company. We got a lot of bright people working for us that most of soceity would see as introverted. We got people locked away in secure rooms for most of their shift, etc - the human part is what makes working there a good thing. We are a very social company in the hallways, meeting areas, etc. Most people (including myself) say that they have very good friends at work, but few outside its walls. To a varying degree, we are a big 400 person family where I work - I think people (ok, myself) need to have the human interaction in order to maintain themselves. Technology roxxors, but there needs to be people to talk to, even if it is anime or what level your 3rd edition Ranger is.
Eat recycled food - it's good for the environment, and OK for you.
at all, damn users can't leave well enough alone, or me. Stop bothering me, if i want to talk to you i'll remove your email address from my spam filter.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
Why is it hard to remember?
Focusing your life around *anything* for long periods of time such that you exclude everything that used to keep you healthy and happy is not going to be good for you.
Complexity Happens
Dubya: "Those techies aren't lonely, they just have no one to talk to, and speak with."
MoFscker
Uuuuuh, duh???? It seems pretty much cool, you know, then again, may be I think so, coz I'm just very lonely depressed, negative, anti-social and unfortunately not brilliant.... But that's enough about me... this is /., you must understand.;oPPPPP
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
I've always been a firm believer that if I wasn't as technologically compotent as I am, I'd probably be a much happier person in general. But you can't unlearn, and I've come to realize that I'd rather be aware of technology than let it overleap me.
- tristan
Moodchange.info makes you pay for the results.
They don't tell you this before you spend 7 minutes taking the test.
In other words, exactly what companies seem to want these days.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
if it makes be brilliant, I don't mind also being depressed and antisocial.
According to Sanders, small groups of engineers who went to completely electronic communication in their workgroups became 'very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people.'
Bah! Humbug...
E
http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
In a related story, they're now claiming that owning Playboy gets you laid and that Blondes really do have more fun!
They'll be releasing a study soon about how much happier people are who spend their time doing things they like.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
You know, when I started my career in IT, I was the happy helpful SysAdmin. I would cheerfully respond to request after request because I loved helping my fellow employees have a positive computing experience.
I never understood why people always thought SysAdmins were grumpy and belligerent.
However, now after a decade of thankless shit-catching, I am that grumpy and belligerent SysAdmin who believes that users are a fucking plague of idiots set loose in Biblical proportions upon my otherwise Utopian computer networks.
Comments such as "your message titled 'Virus Warning - Happy New Year' had the word 'Virus' in it, so I deleted it to be safe, but then I opened the next one that had an attachment called 'Happy New Year'. Now my computer doesn't work right..." (honest-to-God true story) have made me tend to side with the machines while watching such movies as "Terminator" and "Matrix", and to create tools named for the Borg which enforce draconian administration of my networks.
Are we anti-social because of the machines, or because people are morons?
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
'very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people.'"
Wow, I can become brilliant.
They don't need webcams, just accounts on social web sites like VoyerDorm...
You never know...
As many people have already pointed out, there is simply a correlation between technology and unhappy, depressed, anti-social geniuses. This is the easiest mistake a person can make when looking at correlations.
As any beginning psychology student can (should) tell you is that a correlation does not indicate a cause and effect. So, from this, we see that unhappy, depressed, anti-social geniuses use a lot of technology. We have a strong positive correlation between technology and depressed geniuses. It could be that technology causes it, or it could be that depressed geniuses like technology, or it could just be a coincidence.
In order figure out which it is, experiments need to be performed. Observation alone cannot figure this out.
People have been criticising new technology for a long time.
For example, about 150 years ago, someone said how young women should not ride bicycles because it made them less attractive, had bad effects on their health & fertility and gave them grumpy looking faces.
More recently, it was forecast that telephones would cause people to loose touch with their friends and family. ffs Many people here only contact their family on the phone.
Up to the present, they said that children who played with their PC and consoles would be less able and mentally active than children who didn't. Then they realised that the kids who "didn't" were all on the couch watching TV. Any kid who was online or playing games was actually using their brain.
Conclusion?
People have been moaning about new ideas, music and technology for a very long time. I'm sure Aristotle had something to say on the matter and if his statement was put into a modern paper, nobody would notice. (if it was translated first!)
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Seriouslly if it weren't for my son I would just as well spend my whole life online. I'm tired of interfacing with mundane's. The only people I can stand are other techies.
--
If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
I work from home. My coworker just IM'd me this link. You think they're trying to tell me something?
"The study, which monitored the mental-health changes of 25,000 Japanese high-tech workers over three years, found that employees who worked five hours or more in front of a computer were more prone to depression and anxiety."
Yes, it's true. If you spend several hours at a computer doing menial work that you hate, overseen by a boss you hate (and vice-versa) then you'll most likely become bitter, anxiety ridden and depressed.
On the other hand, I spend several hours a day sitting at a computer doing a job that I love and I'm not the least bit depressed. In fact, I look forward to going to work every day.
People had lousy jobs that sucked and made them depressed long before computers were invented. Let's quit blaming computers for all of society's ills.
I think the problem here is that workers who work alone (with the help of a computer) become lonely. Makes sense. But that is a problem with the surroundings, not with the computer.
I work at the university, couple of hours per day at a computer. Still, the co-workes and I have lunch together, take the time off to grab a coffee, or just wander over into the room next door to have a chat.
So if you feel lonely/depressed, try to work with a group of people (you like - that, of course, is a prerequisite), close to them, maybe in the same room.
And... maybe... don't reload the Slashdot page every minute! (SCNR)
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
What else am I going to do in the office? Work?
Quite simply, too much work diminishes tech relationships. How many techs do you see dating? My point. :P
*For the peanut gallery, I'm getting married next months...*
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I'm already lonely, depressed, negative, and anti-social, but now i can become brilliant too! Sign me up!
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I'm certainly not going to be one of those folks who says an immediate 'yes' or 'no' to the question of technology turning us into things that we all know we're perfectly capable of without technology, but here is a different spin from some of the comments I've been reading:
(Keep in mind this is based on personal experiences)
- Many people do not own a landline phone unless they have ADSL.
- Many people do not use email anymore due to spam.
- Many people do not use IMs as they are far too many in number, and again have the spam issue.
This means they are often unavailable to a real-time communications, potentially emergency communications.
Some people take it to extremes, avoiding people by not using the methods they know their friends or family use, or by leaving everything to voicemail/email/IMs and simply ignoring messages. It's amazingly easy to ignore people when you have caller ID on your phones too.
Of those who do stay connected (often via every means possible), here are some behaviors I've noticed:
- Many people are getting obsessive about checking email, how much they're getting, and how they can get more without subscribing to mailing lists.
- Talking on the cellphone during obviously inappropriate and/or plain dangerous activities.
- Leaving their status as 'online' on all IMs to maybe increase the chance somebody wants to talk.
- Gotta have a landline, cellphone, PDA, MP3-man, [insert nifty new devices here].
I think more than anything, the current state of technology and communication is forcing the shy folks into hiding, and giving an amazing opportunity for all the people (worthy or not) of all that extra exposure to expose whatever it is they want to.
You're going to get morons. You're going to get brilliant individuals. And their profession really doesn't matter any more than it used to, the pace of life and the introduction of technology is simply accelerating people's reactions too.
This may seem obvious, but think about it. If you work remotely, is it that working remotely sucks or that the one real jerk you have to work with is empowered by IM and email to be even a greater jerk than he would normally be. Even real, genuine idiots and losers have no guts and will rarely treat you horribly to your face. But add some remoteness and the sense of safety that comes with email or IM, and you have a horrible working situation.
Sure, the tech can be isolating if you don't have any sense of balance. But what makes it intolerable and a real source of stress are these jerks. Yes, they would still be a jackass in person, but deep down you know they wouldn't have the guts to say what they are saying in email to your face.
Is it technology's fault? No. These people are jerks no matter what--they just use the technology that the rest of us enjoy to be even greater jerks. They are the genuine trolls and the losers who infest USENET--except they act this way in real life. They are everywhere you go--they just are more bold when they can hide behind a computer.
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs." -- Switchfoot, Ode to Chin
I like to walk over to people's cubes and discuss issues over the whiteboard. Granted, these are people I wish to associate with - with or without IM (which I don't use) there are some people I do avoid simply because they don't do anything themselves and disrupt my work. I personally think the whole 'asocial' behavior thing for geeks is over rated.
The obvious reason for Sanders having "relationship difficulties" is that he's a controlling jerk. Look at what's going on here... he's trying to tell us how to live our lives because he thinks he is superior. It's just another case of somebody getting rich and then trying to keep everyone else down.
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
I have to say, I agree. Unsolicited advice: try using paper more too. I've re-discovered hand-written notes and printing out documents that I used to try to read online when I got hooked into the "paperless office" notion back in the early-90's, and I must say, the more stuff I have on paper rather then on my computer, the easier my life is and the more productive I am. I know violent environmentalists are probably going to start sending me death threats, but I can't deny it: paper is just better for SO many things, and for SO many reasons.
Too much Slashdot Diminishes Work.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Or then again perhaps it[IT] allows people who may not be comfortable talking face to face the opportunity to avoid face to face contact precisely when it is most needed.
I would find it very easy in my job to communicate entirely by email and IM, but I've found that a kind of "chinese whisper" effect takes hold and more uncertainty is introduced than would be the case in a face to face conversation. So I force myself to get out of my chair. Apparently there are good ergonomic side-effects to this too...
The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are the two great engines of progress -- Bertrand Russell
What shall we use...To fill...the empty... spaces...Where...we used...to talk?
For some it's drugs, for others booze....and yet for others gadgets. They're always there for you and they never question you.
Rather then develop any sort of lasting personal relationships, a person can just continuely obsess about that new gadget you want. Once i get that new wireless phone/pda, I'll finally be cool; I'll finally be happy.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
since when are slashdot users brilliant?
http://www.kevinandkell.com/o m/i ncifruit.com/s rose/index.html
http://www.sluggy.c
http://www.schlockmercenary.com
http://www.v
http://www.comics.com/comics/rosei
For when you OD on the above.
http://jack.keenspace.com/
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
[o]_O
Everyone is saying, "Duh, geeks are antisocial." But the point of the article was (albeit anecdotal) evidence of behavior change that occurred after switching to less human contact. In other words, they may have been antisocial before, but they got worse.
Being able to "socialize" is a "skill." If you don't practice it, your skills will suffer.
People are also very emotional beings. Lack of being around people tends to make people depressed and lonely.
If you isolate yourself, the effects tend to snowball. This shouldn't be very controversial; it should be common sense.
Technology is a TOOL. Not a reason for existence.
I am tremendously connected, same as you: cellphone, PDA, laptop all have one type of Internet connection or another, I spend most of my day at work on IM systems or email, and talk on the phone as part of my job.
Why is it that I seem to be able to also maintain an extremely active social life and take great pleasure in all kinds of offline activity? Is this balance so hard for the average person to reach? Is it one or the other for everyone else? That just seems an absurd proposition. I can't believe that it's that difficult if I seem to be able to do it so easily.
+++ATH0
Lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, bri... damn! Oh well, 4 out of 5 ain't bad.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
I notice that I feel at ease working with comptuers because I understand it's behavior. I can get it to do what I want when I want it, and yeah, sometimes it crashes or does things I can't control / predict, but I can always reboot and start from scratch. It's a very safe, predictable environment once you spend a lot of time there.
And I do think if you spend a lot of time in this environment, people begin to seem comparatively, irrational, hard to predict, hard to control, and no, you can't just hit the reset button when they start acting up.
So, I think your last sentence is a bit of both: many people ARE morons (or, as I would say, irrational and hard to predict / control / work with), but most people don't notice. And one can't really make that obseration unless one doesn't interact with other people all the time.
Take a look at anti-social types like the unabomber, who was anti-technology and lived out in the woods. Many people who choose to withdraw from society, run off into the woods and live hermit like. Now, would someone say, "the woods" is the reason why they are anti social and depressed? Maybe. But it makes more sense to say, these people were anti social to begin with and choose to express it in this way. Same thing with computers.
Listen to http://www.protonradio.com (click tune in), get your groove on and go out and dance dammit!
If you're gonna be a geek, you might as well have fun doing it. Alex Zavatone : ]
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Aw, c'mon. Technology isn't necesarily anti-people, though it can be if the person isn't sociable to begin with. But then again, I'm a pretty shy person, and thanks to technology, I've met all kinds of interesting people, have all kinds of interesting discussions, and have all kinds of interesting hobbies... Now, tell me, what is detrimental about that? Maybe its to geeky for them? hmm??
If I want you to drop everything and service me, I am superior.
If I am talking and you are writing, I am superior. Think old time boss and secretary. Boss talks, secretary takes dictation.
Dominance games are usually the worst means of communicating anything other than who is dominant.
Suppose a person who has an emotional need
to establish dominance over others also likes tech toys? There are lots of these people. They buy the latest toy just because it is the latest toy. They have an emotional need to have something before other people have it.
But those toys don't give them the dominance feedback that they also need. They play with their toys and the discover there is something missing that the toys aren't providing.
Get therapy. Find out why you want the newest toys. Find out why using them makes you feel "isolated" and "alone".
I'll send email to someone sitting right next to me. But only if I think he's busy on a project and wouldn't like to be interrupted or if I can more clearly express myself in an email (or to cover my ass by having a digital record).
This isn't about technology. This is about people interacting with other people.
Hey, I just wrote a book describing the pain I just escaped from and I'd like some of your time to explain it to you because I feel that you just might be living the same pain I was living.
By the way, I'm also giving a lecture about it.
Next year, I'll be giving a lecture about the new book I wrote about being on the lecture circuit promoting the last book I wrote and how painful the lecture circuit was.
The book after that will be about how I found myself addicted to the lecture circuit despite the pain.
I'll happily autograph your copy of my book after the lecture.
Having been an EE and a developer since 1976 ... I have some background. I however have a different slant than the author. It seems to me that everyone takes a career path. While MBA's and EE's seem to be different, they can be very zealous to their careers to the point of excluding all other issues in their lives.
Regardless of the disciplne, one must step back and put life in perspective.
Best
Jeff
Interesting stuff.
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
I went through the article but could not but help noticing that it relied on "anecdotal" and not "scientific" evidence. For example were there any controlled experiments between users and non users of technology ? Were there historical comparisons under different economical conditions ?
People have problems with technology because they dont learn how to use it or what to use it for before using it. For example on getting a cellphone lots of people try to "overuse" them atleast during the initial period because of all the hype about being "always in touch".
Personally I have found that going all electronic has helped me a lot in taking out stress from work relationships. I tend to be free from personal influences and biases and also it helps foster accountability.
Also, it does not mean that I never talk to my coworkers or boss. Every week we play a new "outdoor game" and discover quite a few unique things about each other.
I think most of the problems described by the author is because of the "i got it so i have to use it" mindset. Get that out of the system. Just because we have a new fancy gizmo does not in itself mean that you have to use it fulltime and get you "high" ASAP.
"constant interruption by technology (think e-mail, instant messaging and cell phones)" Read e-mail once a day, don't use messenger, turn off mobile or switch it so ring tone depends who is calling. Simple solutions.
instead of a
. So shoot me ^_^
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
"I'm already lonely, depressed, negative, and anti-social, but now i can become brilliant too! Sign me up!
;)
Howard Dean for President [deanforamerica.com] "
I must be one of a few people who realized that last line is your sig, and only because we've seen it before. Dude, you covered the "steps you need to lose your job" pretty well:
1) Get job as intern for presidential candidate
2) Insult top boss in front of thousands
3) ???
4) Profit (?)
I'm just kidding around man... Everybody knows slashdot's readership is too fat to go out in public infront of their community into one spot and face their adversaries on voting day...
Cover your eyes and click this link!
Maybe they are just being anti-social to Tim Sanders, a Yahoo exec.
Onward to the Aether Sphere!
More seriously, social networks break down for a number of reasons. I like to think that my efforts creating a company BBS for all off our scattered regional offices will bring more people closer together than tear them apart.
I'll admit up front that I haven't more than skimmed the linked article, but this sort of question comes up fairly often and in more general terms: which is the cause and which is the symptom? Did more tech make the techies less social and more isolated, or did those with antisocial tendencies gravitate toward the more technical jobs? It stikes me as similar to the argument that violent movies and video games make children violent, as opposed to already violent children happening to especially like violent games and movies.
'[blah], [blah], [blah], [blah], brilliant people.' Sounds good to me.
very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people.
So this will make me brilliant? Sign me up!
Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
even if it is from an AC
I've prefer e-mail for communication in work because it affords me the opportunity to think twice or even thrice before "saying" anything. Keeps me out of trouble. Also, co-workers can't deny receiving data from me if I have the sent mail receipt and an exact transcript of what I sent and when I sent it.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Oh yeah... the brilliant part.
As for the antisocial part, well... Mark Twain said it best:
The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.
BTW, my dog is a complete assh*le.
Mnem
Why, the relationships I've formed right here on Slashdot are as vibrant and fulfilling as any "real-world" relationship I've ever had!
I think you have a point here.
Some introverted computer freaks (count myself in) may use computers for the shielding it provides them against people who they usually don't want to be familiar with in their everyday life.
While this may reveal an initial lack of social skills, ie shyness, this does not mean that technology drives those people towards social isolation. If they are not yet thinking that people are bad and tech is good for them, they might very well use tech to find people more similar to them with whom they might have important fulfilling social interaction, be it via email, instant messaging or web forums in a first time, and physically in a second one if by chance they are not living too far away.
I had the occasion to meet a guy on IRC which I found quite brillant, humanly speaking, but was probably as a-social as I was at that time. For various reasons, I do not see him anymore but we had deep interesting conversations that we could not have with most people around us, some about technology, some philosophical, about our respective crushes of the moment, etc.
Clearly, we had nobody around available that we might have "used" as readily as we did to talk the "important" (to us at least) matters that we had in mind.
We were not wasting our time chatting about the weather or useless concernes, (I think) we were having a rather deep friendly relationship.
Tech actually helped us find a friend soul at that time.
I had other physical friends around, even in my cs classes, but though I think we estimated each other quite well and I still see them on a regular basis, we did not develop such kind of relation. I even noticed that we talked about more intimate subjects easily when we used IRC rather than oral communication.
This probably has to do with shyness : not seing the person you interact with, and more importantly not being seen by this person, helps a lot to overcome it. Perhaps we felt more equal and less being judged by others when facing a keyboard and screen.
I now regret to have lost contact with him and I should probably try to contact him again but this story shows indeed that tech can help meeting interesting people, though we met physically once only.
Overall, I think that tech does not encourage or limit our ability to communicate. Introverted people in need for social interaction can find it using computers. Even blogs can help find persons with interests approaching yours if you manage to make friends with their authors. They might be considered as the display of a narcissic and exhibitionist mind but perhaps do they instead say "hey, you, I am here, this I like, this I do, don't you too ? let's meet !".
All would be better of course if we all had the ability to (physically) communicate intimately even with people we are not familiar with, but I guess that this is something which requires training to acquire. Tech is a neutral tool and can help both for such training or to reinforce insolation. I guess that how it's used depends mostly on each person state of mind and global school/working conditions : if one gets to work in a stressful environment in front of a computer, then it seems logical to me that he will be (and thus feel) lonely and depressed. Someone whose job consists of talking to other brillant people will obviously not be depressed, if he gets to speak only with frustrated angry dumbasses, well, he most surely will too.
I sometimes think that the problem is that we do not get enough time outside work, if we had more, it might be easier to physically meet far-located internet buddies and thus get to have this social training that some of us lack.
But given how things work in a highly competitive environment I guess that we are not going this way. Every productivity gained is not used to diminish the amount of work each people do, but to produce more : we a
It's true that technology is a poor substitute for a happy social life, but at the same time, technology doesn't start lawsuits, sleep around, kill your dog, or burgle your home.
People easily cause much more grief than technology does, and I think a large part of the geek's preference for machines is a desire to avoid that kind of shit.
Personally I'm happy to spend time with people and accept the bad with the good, and I prefer an evening in a cafe to an evening with Slashdot. But it's not always easy. An active social life can often be a road straight into hell.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
I worked a summer working nightshirt at a factory, grinding electrical enclosures. I was standing right next to a group of guys, but with the noise, you can't hear anyone. During the day, I was home when everyone else was at work. It was a lonely time, but the technology had nothing to do with it.
I was one of those sending e-mail to my teammate in the next cube. I would still do it. It documents the discussion.
What I wish I read and have not, is that workers need to get over the idea that work life is social life. What happens when the job is over? People need a varied social life to be mentally healthy.
I may sound like I'm contradicting my self, but I'm not. Making regular eye to eye contact does help social relationships. I worked in a team that wrote custom software for the overseas offices. My relations with one engineer were a little stressed. I worked in his office for a bit, and it did help.
So use the technology. If things get stressed, get together. And make friends outside work.