Everywhere you look someone is staring at a screen. Your boss. Your 15 year old. Probably even your 15 month old. Age is no matter in the age of digitalization. We communicate mostly through phones, computers, or ipads–even more than we communicate by speaking face to face. There has been a huge cultural shift and whether you believe that’s a good or bad thing, one thing is for certain it affects us all.
Think about attending a concert in the 80’s or 90’s. Whenever a ballad came on lighters went up as symbol of unity for that song. Today’s concerts leave no room for lighters because everyone raises a screen, illuminating the whole venue. Emblamatic of a larger culture shift.
For better or worse, technology connects us to people CONSTANTLY. A new study shows that 36% of people stop what they are doing when they receive a new alert on their phone. About the same amount (35%) say that being tethered to their device negatively affects their relationships.
Millennials may be affected the most because this culture shift happened during their lifetime. About 62% of them say that they like knowing more than the previous generation about technology. Little do they know the coming generation is learning at a much faster rate and at a younger age about the things that came about during their lifetime.
Think this takes the “life” out of millennials? Strikingly the answer is NO. A whopping 87% of millennials say they want to live a meaningful life. What’s even more shocking is that 82% of them want to get married, opposed to only 62% of the general population.
What else does this cultural shift mean? We are forever connected to work. Satisfaction with balance between work and home life is at an all time low because we are continually connected to work and the battle to be productive. This ultimately increases stress.
“Life may be coming at us fast and furious, but many people report they are actually getting less done. And even though they feel productive, they don’t feel productive enough.”
So how does digitalization affect you? Think about this every time you find yourself staring at a screen.