Stay Connected, Stay Sane

More and more important decisions are being made through e-mails, full conversations are being composed in text messages, and families separated by large distances are staying connected by video chatting. Technology has grown to be a new language, one we are still learning to use effectively. There have been obvious benefits to the age of connectivity, but there are also negatives to consider. This blog will take a quick look at the pros and cons of staying connected through technology.

The Pros

• Being connected means being safe. Roadside disasters, unpredictable heart attacks or sudden illness are all situations that can benefit from early notification. Increased connectivity makes contacting help easier and more reliable.
• Staying in contact is now as easy as clicking a button. Ask any soldier deployed over seas and they’ll tell you that staying in touch with their families is now easier than ever. Sending a message takes only a second thanks to highly advanced Internet connections and international bandwidth.
• Technology has made offices portable. Everyone knows at times the travel to work can be difficult. Thanks to telecommuting, working from home while sick or on personal leave is as simple as opening up your laptop.

The Cons

• Connectivity is hard to turn off. We all appreciate being in touch, but sometimes we need alone time. Being constantly accessible makes disconnecting extremely difficult. This negatively affects our ability to stop and smell the roses and enjoy our surroundings.
• Always being connected promotes over-working. While telecommuting helps redefine your workspace, it also blurs the line between private and professional life. It’s important to know when to disconnect, so having your entire office available on a laptop can make that choice a difficult one.
• While connectivity can be hard to break, it can also encourage us to detach from those close around us. While technology has helped to make communication possible at a remote distance, it’s also made personal connections easy to ignore.

The age of connectivity has altered the way we communicate. The key to keeping ourselves in check is remembering to interact with these new experiences with moderation. We all have to strike the balance between inadequate and too much connectivity.

For more information on connectivity, as well as an interesting look at unplugging yourself from technology, take a look at this article.