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Each one of us has had this experience of when phoning to get a service, stumbling upon an answer machine. After pressing many buttons, finally we get through to a human being at the other end of the line. Yet, the other human being has also a list of answers and instead of trying to be of service, many times is unable to help.
Despite the sophisticated media today - that always helps in the small tasks - I believe we are loosing somehow this human warmth in our relations.
Acoording to you: how did we loose this human contact? Also, how this new type of relation will affect our future?
It will lead to more disconnection, closeness and lack of personal attention.
We are all looking for understanding and need to be heard. How can they help us, if they do not hear us?
Love and Light,
Olga
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Are not we those speaking mashines here on this forum? I really like the motion picture Samsara, about budhist monk…mainly because the pictures were speaking for themselves, and too little dialogs. Viewer has time to think about what was said…
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The rapidly growing media’s shedding an adverse influence on our society; no doubt about it.
The Media is a service, as mentioned by Mr Paulo Coelho in the video above but lets look at it in a different perspective; do we really need this service?
The purpose of the Media in recent times has been widely fluid and diversed as people now not only use the Media for communication but also, entertainment. The Media influences and shapes the society and its direction.
Humans being highly emotive creatures, and the Media has a part to play in relation to the question if humans are losing human relation and warmth due to its advancement.
Yes, the Media renders human beings immune to a certain degree of “warmthness” but let us take a step back as the there is no definate answer to this argument.
The stand can fall both ways but I personally feel that the media does not cripple human warmth and relations, but in fact, bonds them.
Take webcams for example. Sure, I mean its not as good as seeing the person face to face in real life but hey, its the next best thing there is when you’re trying to interact with someone leagues away from your physical position.
The lack of warmth and relations comes when people over-rely on the advancements on Media and when they take things too far. Getting too caught up in the Media will cause such negative results and thus deprive humans of their so called “humanly-touch”
All in all, it depends largely on how one views the matter at hand, and it varies based on personal perceptions.
Keep Writing!
Cheers.
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No matter what the circumstance, on-the phone or in person, a human being can always find a way to show warmth and compassion.
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Paulo,
Internet est un moyen de communication revolutionnaire mais les gens ont tendance à oublier leur vie sans leurs ordinateurs.
J’ai testé le site de rencontre meetics pour avoir un apercu des rencontres hommes/femmes via internet.
J’ai trouvé cela assez desolant, c’est froid rigide mécanique. c’est par des critères de beauté que l’on plait…un peu trop fermé pour moi.
Pour savoir si une personne me plait, j’ai besoin de la ressentir, de l’entendre, de partager des instants avec elle.
Je pense que les gens ne font pas d’efforts pour être ouvert aux autres chaque jour, et cela est bien dommage car la vie et constitué de multitudes de personnes toutes plus interressantes les unes des autres. le partage est essentielles. La communication est si simple : un sourire, un bonjour.. et la conversation demarre et l’on se plait ou non. mais ca vaut le coup d’essayer.
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What a coincidence! This has been the subject of my week.I believe the reason we have arrived at this predicament is purely due to materialism. To have a human connection from the first point of contact would require paying wages and taxes, a machine is a more inexpensive low maintenance option. After all, business is all about profit…
I believe that this predicament will continue to grow over the coming years, with more and more services becoming automated wherever possible. Gradually, in business, human contact will become less and less.
However, as we all know, technology, quite often can fail. Only then will companies realise humans are more reliable. Or perhaps Businesses will realise it will be more profitable to them to approach their customers with the human touch and reintroduce employees to replace automation. But for this to work, the employee must be of certain character and genuinely care about the customer she is in service to.
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Press 1, Press 2, Press 3…definitely is annoying, and not a very positive company strategy indeed. Still I’m a technology optimist. Look at this little “Paulo community” here where we can share thoughts and ideas. It’s fun.
To Martina. Please, if you think about hurting yourself, please call your emergency telephone line. In the USA its 911. Tell them, and they have to come and help you right away. Wish we could be there face to face with you, but that’s the limit of a machine. Look for the book; “A thousand reasons to live” by Dom Helder Camara. Beautiful.
Heart
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Dear Paulo and friends,
I definitely take human being because I feel like we lose all the good things. I grew up in a country where people love technology. (Even monks like it.) One recent day, I was assigned to make a lighting plan for a temple. (I work as a lighting planner.) So I did the proposal and the monk liked it. I know it would be a magnificent view at night with all the pretty lights, but I felt I wish to say ‘why don’t you lit up a bonfire every night. I know it would be laborious but it would be much spiritual and make you feel better at the end of the day.’ Technology is important for certain area, but there is something that cannot be replaced. oh I am feeling while writing this that I should be more nice to friends and family… love
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Hi Paul,
I never heard your name until I was on Gaia..
It seems to me that we are dissassociating ourselves with one another, that is what you are surmising, and it is true. Proof of this is the accident that occurred three weeks ago in Hartford Connecticut. Two cars were chasing one another close to the middle of downtown hartford. A driver hit an older spanish man, throwing him up into the air and crashing down upon another car. He is now paralized from the NECK down…aside from the selfish, destructive behavior of the driver who hit and ran and did NOT stop while passerbys on the streets and cars passed and watched, people on the streets did NOT help the man, angel torres i beleive his name is, a 76 year old retired man who was walking from the store to buy milk or bread for dinner and was crossing the street when the hit and run occurred.
I am horrified to see the people on the street who watched, walked toward the curb to gape at the man lying in the streets and did NOT go to him to help. This is a sad sad commentary. Never have I seen such inhuman humanity. In fact, I wrote a short script on this very incident.
This is what is happened to our culture. We are becoming reclusive on the computers, hedonistic, materialistic, entitled, anti social, arrogant, and alienated from one another. Voice messaging is not customer service, we don’t want to do customer service anymore, we want to rape our customer and get away with it, without conscience or responsibility. Welcome to 2008.
We must fight this!
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Dear Paulo,
I always recall Charlie Chaplin’s milestone motion picture entitled “Modern Times” when the machine insanely fed him till he faint and got nervous breakdown.
We can’t deny the philosophy behind machines since the industrial era and actually all the human race which can be simply summarised into minimzing human effort and thus , however the coin has always two sides so I reall wonder where are we going, as humans?
Thanks for sharing.
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I really agree with Rene (June 25, 2008 at 3:12 pm ). I also work as a customer service rep and it really takes two people to make a nice, warm and human conversation. Most of you are speaking from the part of the customer and since part of my job involves calling our customers (mostly just to welcome them to the service and check for questions), I usually “face” a lot of those machines.
And it’s not the machines that are at fault. The touch is lost not due to the presence of the machine, but due to the decision of the human. I leave about 10 messages on answering machines and only 1-2 of them are returned back as either a call or an e-mail. The rest choose to screen and/or not reply at all. I understand this partly, being a customer of other companies myself. But knowing how good it feels to acknowledge the presence of the person who has taken the time to touch base with you (just a simple - hey, I got your message - sounds so warm, even in an e-mail), I always return the calls and e-mails of those who have contacted me.
And please do not be so harsh on the people who answer the phones, sometimes they get tired too (not to mention the angry customers who are rude, impatient and make you feel miserable). And a warm word from the customers’ side does not hurt at all. At most, you can make the day of the person you are speaking to brighter.
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I forget - number zero is like best usually to have
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It is good the machine.
Patiants is a good thing to learning.
People not good at each other - machine is most best.
Maybe machine friends and family are no more arguments and maybe machine leaders we have no more war.
I think God is machine?
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Dear Paulo Coelho, I strongly believe that our view upon money, not money itself, has made us loose contact to each other. But I also am convienced that worldwide the view will change to the better and we once again will recognize the real worth in beeing human :)
Keep safe and keep on giving us your views and thoughts:)
Thank you
Larisa
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Dear Paulo,
this is the first time i get in touch with you directly … But i think you made me learn alot of ideas when i read some of your book … specially ( el chemists ) , (11 min) ..you made me see the world with a diffrent point of view…
and about answreing your questions… the civilization reached that kind of fast through millions years of recearches and expriments .. so finally what we have now consider to be the resultant of hard work throgh very long period of time…as a postive view we have fast momvent and required to our needs which might be done easily …the negative view we don’t connect to any human till the end… and i think in the future this kind of relation will reduce the love ,,, may be the need is satisfied but the emotions will not…
LOVE
Mo’taz MOhamed
cairo, egypt
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People are afraid of any hint of intimacy, I still can’t understand why.
Saludos
Tanja
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Dear Paulo,
i knew exactly what you mean, in the last times i had such phone-call with this “service-hotlines”, I recognize it from the beginning on that the people on the other end of the line just by accepting the call were so bored from all this and that the mayor of this people like you said it just follow a list of answers that anyone who probably doestn know how it is to talk to the customers.
So, why we cant make it to unwrite this list by surrender all our love and positive vibes on the phone and at least make the people to take this list..and throw it away and act from the heart..
I mean istn it helpfuller for someone if the other human being on the phone listen to me…talks to me…laugh with me..and feel with me?? So this people can start to have fun with that job and start to like what theire doin so they can find love in their heart…and finally give it to other people J
So I think everyone of us who consider itself as warrior of the light should the next times not loose their patience rather give the other person on the line much much much of his heart…
So…saludos de Vienna, Austria
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A budist lama said that when you keep asking many questions you have no space in your mind to get the answers. That’s the problem, the machines and people who sometimes answer the telephone ask you some many questions BECAUSE THEY REALLY DON’T HAVE ANSWERS TO GIVE TO YOU!!!!!
People today are looking for answers very far, and they forget to look just next to them where the answerings really are! You may get answers looking for the nature, the animals, plants, etc. People are sofisticating so much their lives that they are forgeting to see simple things, as you said, thalking to another person!
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I had it when I have to answer to a machine and you have to keep pressing the numbers and somewhere in between all the pressing I would really get pissed of and discontinue the call. Why can’t they have humans instead of the machine or is it their ploy in discouraging customers from calling.
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well. this is unavoidable.
this is the price we should pay to have all things, what technologie offers us today.
you are able to by everything in Internet and you do not think to get it anywhere else just because you want to stop this replacing process. (machine-human)
That is right, that we’ll miss the human-to-human relationship but this kind of service belongs to the past.
we shouldn’t hold on old customs but rather innovate new ways.
Actually we never had this kind of relationship in the past, we had never needed mobile, computer or internet. we had never needed something exotic from the other end of the world.
If you limit your daily needs to the minimum, then you don’t need to use this machine kind of service even today. It is a very new way to achieve our daily growing necessities.
I don’t think that this will affect our future negatively. I am confident that the mankind will find some way to save and establish a balance.
I believe you will find more practical answers if you ask “What can we do to improve (increase) the human warmth in our daily relations”
Best Regards
–Naghmeh
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uhmmm its my first time to open this site, and i have been a fan of your since the alchemist…
about your question, i felt a certain pang of pain in it, i felt like crying cause, I did lose the “human touch” and sound so mechanical…
I am a contact agent, yes i am one of those “machines” you are referring that are trying to assist people in solving their issue. At the start of the day, i get to my headset as if it is a mask that i need to play. It is so hard to be human in from of the computer and answer calls and helping people you dont see. Its like faith you trust that there is a higher being but you dont see him/her.
I mean it is hard to be human. Being human would entail me to be attached, affectionate and caring. I tried so many times to have a sense of “humaness” in my calls, but after that call then you have to wear that headset again and be a “machine” in order to protect my sanity and the tought of not being eaten by guilt of angry/irate customers who hated the company/ not you.
it is hard to say NO. or we can not help you with this. REjecting is double the pain of being rejected. Sometimes when you hit the end part of the call you are not able to help that old lady on the other line it pains me. Sometimes even if we are paid by the minute we spend on call, say, the shorter the call the higher the pay, we go the extra mile and try to assist you even if our pay is on the line.
Buttom line people like me “machines” do know how to be human, we just choose not to for the mean time in order to survive, in a world that deals with machines as well.
paolo i hope u can create a book about being “machine”
keep the pen running there are so many people that was able to get realizations from your thought ;p
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The sophistication of technology has its advantage. You can reach the whole world through this technology. Writing and participating in this blog when Im in the Philippines is not possible w/out these machines. It is useful and I think we should not be too hard on it.
But the lack of human touch will greatly affect us. It creates a lot of distortions. It keeps us out of touch with each other and the worst is,it will keep us out of touch with ourselves.
I work real hard to be in touch with my “Self”. Because it keeps me perceptive and be deep enough to hear my intuition. Even if the world is having its own evolution we should still be in touch with others and with ourselves.
So we need to balance things. Learn how to use technology but do not rely on it. Learn also to get in touch with people and with yourself so that you will not be lost and be overwhelm with machines.
Mr. Paolo Coelho I love your books. You are like an angel to me. I devour your books imagining myself as a student and your my teacher. It is generous of you to let us share our thoughts in your site. Thank you for your works and your generous soul. I hope to see you and hear you talk in person. Though its unlikely, but you knows…
Radha
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We can all knock technology, but we use it. Most technological advances have been made to help speed up everyday things or to help save us time..except nowadays everyone seems to have a lot less time for whatever reason. We hate it and we love it. So I guess I’m on the fence with this whole humanity vs technology situation. I hate dealing with stupid automated machines when trying to pay a bill or fix something on a personal account..but sometimes I think talking to machines is better for one with anger issues cause most times customer service workers get chewed out by unhappy callers..and that’s just bad karma, no?
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Janice, a wonderful true story, and your point about changing with the times is so pertinent. I guess it’s popularly known as “going with the flow”.
May I take the opportunity of complimenting you for the calm & human way in which you dealt with both machines & people alike regarding your son’s predicament. A lesson indeed, about not making a mountain out of a mole hill (which only makes things worse ;)
Love & Light from Austria, Paul
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People are not becoming speaking machines, we’re all simply losing touch with ourselves. As technology advances, it’s easy to let it do things for you. It allows people a way out of complexity, something I think we all look to escape until we have the courage to embrace it.
It frees you of responsibility and for those services you speak of, when you finally reach a person, that person speaks on behalf of a company which also, believes evasiveness is the best policy. i.e. The less people know the better, the fewer questions to answer, the better. The safer. The less complex everything will be.
The truth is, every conversation with another person can easily become a challenge. Automation provides relief from possibly complex situations and machines, with no heart, mind, belief, emotion, have no knowledge of complexity.
So no, people aren’t speaking machines, the majority have just stopped allowing other people to present them with challenges, because challenges expose us to ourselves- our abilities, possibilities, in-competencies, weaknesses, and people would rather not think of such things. The farther we get into technology, the more we are removed from ourselves.
But technology is the future, and as much as I dislike typing because it doesn’t allow me to see myself in my handwriting, here I am, typing because I have no choice.
The disappearance of things that connect us to our humanity like handwriting papers, reading a book in your hand, speaking to a live person, running outside, they’re all symptoms of the same thing.
Things that connect us to our humanity, when done well, are always a challenge and are always more complex than most people anticipate or desire. But complexity is a far more beautiful thing than we like to admit.
If losing touch with yourself makes you a speaking machine, then you’re right. But losing touch with yourself makes you worse than a machine because human beings, unlike machines, are not made to be numb/ unfeeling/ simple.
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o hullo and a very big hi to u i did not even know that this site existed.very very happy to hve found u here. the blogs r such a blessing.
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It is a very valid and important speculation in these days to think about humans and machines. My experience with the issue of customer service comes from both sides. I have been, at one opoint in my life, the training agent of a customer service department where I used to train the agents how to reply to customers, and I, myself, recorded the IVR system messages (it is ironic that it is called Interactive Voice Response System (IVR)!) where I used to say to the caller, “please press 1″ …etc
I think, there is always a human factor even in machines. The messages were recorded by me, and once I got sick and I couldn’t record an updated message and asked somebody else to do it in my place, my boss when hearing the message, immediately called from overseas and asked for a re-recording session with my voice even if I were sick because it is not what he wanted, even though she spoke very well and she said the words that I was supposed to sayy, but for him it was still not what he was looking for. So that maybe proves that there is a human energy in everything. After all mahcines are created by us!
When I used to train the customer service department, I used to ask them to “smile” when answering somebody because it is true that the caller can not see your smile, but he or she can “hear” it!
On the other hand, I was once in a visit to Dubai and I have sent a donation through Paypal to a charity organization but they were experiencing problems in retrieving the money. I emailed Paypal customer service many times with no reply, and so I decided to call them an international call from Dubai to the USA to resolve the problem. I spent around 40 minutes trying to explain the situation and convincing the representative that I’m not receiving any reply from them by email and the charity cannot withdraw the money, to no avail! The agent kept repeating a sentence that he learnt from his supervisor which insists that Paypal answers all emails and maybe their email has gone to my “spam folder” that is why I “think” that I didn’t receive any reply from them! I kept repeating that I check my spam folder regularly, but he just refused to hear me, he was just repeating his words like a machine!
So what is my stance on this issue? I think machines can never replace human beings unless we choose to become one! If we choose to become so distanced from others, then it is our choice, our responsibility not anybody else’s. We chose to turn a blind eye on somebody else’s needs. It is not the fault of the machines. Anything material is a sword with two blades, you choose how to use it, and you define its destiny.
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I am skeptical about what we actually want for our future and what’s being plan for it by… the third parties. To be honest with you I’m a firm believer of human kindness, of human nature. I believe we humans are good beings at heart, beings that love to play, beings that like to feel been a part of something bigger than themselves and beings that rejoice sharing time with one another. J.J. Rousseau said in his book ‘The Social Contract’ that men is born to this world uncorrupted and good, then civilization corrupts him. We sort of have a paradox here, since men and civilization are so closely relate it… but only one comes prior.
Mediatization and automatization are two different things, and in today’s era one is been used to excuse the other. Since the agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago, to this date, logistics and planification have been a most efficient tool that has helped our public relations to leap into the 20th century and it’s traumatic post-modernism. Now, when unemployment is sky rocketed and economics are at fault, we want to automatize job positions like telephones operators. The irony is beyond me.
Trial and error, the war economics, inflation, digitalism, unforgiving climate, and soon robots… all of which seem to have the potential to displace us, the poor, the ignorant, the meek (Paulo, fear not, your hundred thousand copies of books sold world wide have saved you from kingdom come).
Automatization is a weapon of technology for when there are no more slaves to toy around with.
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I phoned to cancel my son’s lost visa card today - he was dashing around Florence back-tracking and then making a quick dash to get to his bank before it closed.
I answered computerised questions,listened to repetitive, pleasant music for quite some time, cancelled the call evenutally and tried again later, to once more, answer the same questions and listen to the same piece of music, that would not have been my choice, but which I can now say wansn’t too unpleasant. I did relax during this time and didn’t fight or complain about todays’ systems.
Eventually, a very pleasant man answered me and after going through all the usual palava of security questions, he cancelled the card, checked the account for loss, said a new card had been issued and thanked me for my patience in waiting and wished me a happy day.
My son, answered the usual questions in the bank. Produced all the necessary documentation for proof of his identity and was asked to wait a little while and was given a new card.
So in the light of the new systems and technology of today, today my son and I dealt with a trying situation and made the acquaintance of two capable, professional and very polite employees in two banking systems.
Times change but I suppose as long as we change with them and happily then time just continues to move forward and so must we.
I love your site, your blog, your books - God Bless you and your family.
And all the readers.
Janice x
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Hi Paulo (this time I’ll write in english), I work at an house rental’s office in São Paulo. And we all in here are very used to automatic answers when calling to the light and the water company. It’s all completly automatic, and the person that finally (after 30 minutes of wait) talks to you just like a robot, talks with a cold and distant voice. I guess everybody really hate it.
but has a “not that bad” side, all that is a attempt to make the services faster and solve the clients’ issue even faster, of course a little bit of “souls” on the other side of the line wouldn’t hurt anybody. this way I guess a sentence I have read somewhere ,make itself true ” on the past, people were apart by distant but always when reunions came seemed that no one has ever left each other. now a days people have contact almost 24 hours per day with everyone at any part of the globe but people never been that far from each other before.” this is very sad but if we don’t do something the future will be even colder….
XOXO Karla
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martina !
now that u are contemplating anyway what is the hurry !! take your time dear, why don’t you read paulo’s veronica decides to die ! before u die, for a few days let your mind die ! don’t beleive anything it tells u ! mind sometimes gets confused, or to put it more accurately mind is confusion ( brain is a bilogocial necessity, but not mind, and certainly not always !, mostly.
love
aditya
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Dear Martina, don’t follow the rules of institutions, live your life, your dream and believe that like all of us, you haven a pre-destined path, which for none of us includes the act of suicide. As Paulo reconfirmed many times (and based on a statement by Borges in one of his books) bravery is expected of us when walking our path, but bravery does not mean the absence of fear. The warrior of light is brave, but not fearless. I don’t know where you live, so it’s hard to imagine your political circumstances, but in the western world we do have a choice and we must make use of it. If you live “your” life, you will feel better about it, and you should be grateful to have been blessed with it. I wish you strength, courage and enlightenment. Love, Paul (from Austria)
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It’s very late here where I am, close to 1:00 a.m. I just returned home from a day spent with one of my daughters and thought I would check in for a moment and read what you all have said since my visit here last night. I’m so seldom here and so was a little surprised by Martina’s reply.
I’m a little confused about this reply and wonder if I am reading it correctly and do I step in and say something that I know is way off the subject of human vs technology of which we’ve been discussing. But after a moment of reflection, I decide yes, as I am human, after all. One cannot remain the “observer” only and not offer something, even if it is only words to think about. And that is my choice for this evening. I wanted to say something to Martina: You are here for a reason, as we all are. Sometimes you know why, other times you don’t. But never for one single moment doubt that there is a reason.
Also, realize that there are more ways than one to cope with life. Seek help when you need it and explore all options. You must know that there is always more than just one choice. (even choosing not to make a choice IS a choice)
If, on the chance that I’ve read your reply here incorrectly, please forgive me. I am, as I mentioned earlier, only human.
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I think that in our quest to be faster, better and more efficient, we lost the human element along the way. Everything is about making life simpler, easier, efficient, when in reality we have become cheaper, lesser and worse. Look at fast food restaurants - the premise being getting food fast but in reality the quality is gone. We don’t write letters we email. We don’t pick up the phone we text. We “book” dates and dinners and friends. I find that so sad. I spent a year travelling in Asia and for the first time in my life I didn’t have any technology with me. No cell phone, no email, only postcards and letters and payphones to call home. It was so refreshing. I miss human contact. Instead of banking online, I still go into my branch to do transactions. Instead of emailing, I still send letters. I read books. I listen to CDs instead of MP3s … I miss the good old days when you needed (and wanted) the human element of every day existance.
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..even now
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Why are we supposed to live? ..and follow the rules given by institutions? I do not think I can cope with this anymore.. was even considering the suicide..
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I am studing social sciencis and I work wiht persons with quite serious mental healt issues. As a socialworker I want be able to avoid sounding like some book that I have read at school because many of my clients had said that all they need is real things and relationships. I think we are loosing humanity in our actions and that makes as unhappy of our being. So I am very affaird of we are going to be the machines our selves - in a long run there is no need for robots, we are going to act like ones.
wiht love
Teija
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i addressed this very question in my own blog here: http://1afrika.blogspot.com/search/label/bureaucracy
and i think humanity was lost with the rise of modern bureaucracy but we will find balance again one day … because we are all suffering from the globalization of this modern idea … and more will probably suffer before we figure it out …
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i sent a text message to my friend at her birthday because she ever hardly answers her phone and i myself did not want to leave a message on the answering machine. since i wanted her to read it that day i sent it instead of an email. yesterday (ten days later) i got to know that she was really sad because i forgot her birthday. “damnit” - no one needs that and then i realize again how important it is to talk to each other. even though a lot of people greet via text message or email i will quit doing so of today and talk and talk and talk….
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I think this kind of services are the most boring and annoying ones I’ve ever seen.
I’m a very patient person, but everytime I have to face this machines I lose the patience. It’s like a test for my ability to be patient.
Corporates try to be practical using this machines, but it’s a waste of time for the costumers.
And yes…I think that in ten years time we will be talking with cold machines! Oh my…
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I think this kind of services are the most boring and annoying ones I’ve ever seen.
I’m a very patient person, but everytime I have to face this machines I lose the patience. It’s like a test for my ability to be patient.
Corporates try to practical using this machines, but it’s a waste of time for the costumers.
And yes…I think that in ten years time we will be talking with cold machines! Oh my…
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I used to be one of those person who answers the phone on the other side of the line.
I had on average 40 to 60 calls a day, so it was hard to give full attention to each person.
However I used to connect as a human being to one person every 15-20 calls, because they were more friendly, or different, or they asked question about me, or we could connect on a small detail.
Most people expect a professional answer to their specific problem, they don’t want to chat around or make jokes, so it’s hard to do that because we don’t know exactly what the other wants. We start with a neutral-professional tone and adapt from there.
After all, communication involves 2 persons, so if you can’t connect it’s not only because of the other one ;)
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