Last week I was working on my laptop in the living room and received an email from my husband. He was in our bedroom study…just a couple of steps away in the room next to me. I’m not kidding! In another instance, a friend of mine told me about the time she found her four children all sitting in the same room together but arguing with each other on Facebook. What’s happening here?
On a television show last month, I watched an interview with a dad whose daughter had racked up thousands of text messages in one month. Fortunately he didn’t have to pay the almost $3,000 that the bill would have been because he had an unlimited texting service plan. Instead of talking to the daughter in person, the father texted her to tell her that she was grounded from texting. These are three examples of de-personalization in our everyday lives.
Advances in technology (such as chatting online, communicating via Facebook and Twitter, and texting on cell phones) have depersonalized so many social parts of life. It’s not necessarily all bad, but it’s important to be aware of it.
In many of my software training classes with Versitas, I hear students comment on how important human interaction is to help them learn. When offered online versus in-person classes, I have many students that choose to attend the in-person training class. It seems that many people are craving training that is taught by an actual instructor in the classroom. Especially when employees are sitting in cubicles all day communicating via email and phone, in-person training often seems to boost morale by allowing actual human interaction between the employees.
Although online classes might be the perfect match for some students, other students consistently prefer to attend an instructor-led training class. Every training method must compete for the attention of students, who must often check email or voicemail during the training. This is where in-person training can be very helpful. The personal touch of meeting eye-to-eye with an individual gives a personal contact that happens during in-person training. The nuance of feeling the moment and understanding when an individual needs that extra bit of attention is an important ingredient and helps to really teach the skills that are needed in today’s corporate environment.
Individuals in a corporation like everyone else want to know that they are being listened to and taken seriously. Learning new applications or programs like Microsoft Access, PowerPoint, Excel, etc., can be anywhere from overwhelming to monotonous and impersonal when an individual tries to learn something on their own. With an instructor carefully listening to their questions and needs, I believe it can help create a better learning experience.
After all, isn’t that what it’s really all about?
