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Picture this . . . You wake up, roll out of bed, and brush your hair just enough to look presentable for your first video meeting of the day. You pop a Starbucks pod into your Keurig and let the coffee start working its magic.
Your workday begins with a virtual meeting . . . followed by another . . . and another. Your camera stays off unless absolutely required. Lunch arrives from your favorite local restaurant. You selected “leave at door,” so there’s no need to interact with the delivery driver.
Your allergies flare up again, so you log into your doctor’s portal and submit your symptoms. The physician prescribes the same medication you’ve used before, and it’s delivered straight to your door. After work, you do a little shopping . . . online. You have a question about your latest cell phone bill, so you chat with a virtual agent who resolves the issue in seconds.
Finally, it’s time to move your body. You hop on your Peloton . . . in your bedroom. Since it’s Friday night, you treat yourself to a movie. So, you settle onto the couch and start scrolling through Netflix, trying to decide what to watch.
Convenient? Absolutely. Connected? Absolutely not!
Technological advances and our love of convenience have created something close to a frictionless life, a life designed to remove obstacles, delays, and inconvenience. But there’s a hidden cost. When life has no friction, it can also have very little human contact. No friction equals no human connection.
Technology is an incredible tool. It helps us stay productive, solve problems quickly, and even maintain relationships across long distances. Technology can absolutely enhance human connection, but it should never replace human connection. And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening in many areas of our lives.
Further, the modern workplace makes connection harder than ever. Remote work, hybrid schedules, and digital collaboration tools have made it easier to work from anywhere. But they’ve also made it easier to work without truly connecting with people. Whether you work in an office, from home, or somewhere in-between, one thing has become clear: Human connection no longer happens automatically, so we must be more intentional about creating it.
