The issue of personal dependency on digital communication devices — including smartphones, laptop computers, electronic tablets, “smart” homes, and driver-assisted automobiles — has intensified over the last decade. Among some of the most obvious problems with this technology dependency are: it can become a distraction from accomplishing essential tasks in life; it can create a false sense of accomplishment when one is simply wasting time; and it can contribute to furthering isolation from other human beings.
The results of a January survey of U.S. adults by the Pew Research Center reveal that 97 percent of Americans own a cellphone, 90 percent of cell phone users own a “smartphone,” and 15 percent of those surveyed are “smartphone-only” internet users. Additionally, Pew found that 20 percent of Americans 18-to-29 self-identify as smartphone-dependent.
Americans’ universal embrace of smartphone usage is a significant factor contributing to what organizational psychologist Richard Davis argues is the loss of cognitive and social skills needed for a thriving personal and professional life.
Davis, a managing director of Toronto-based consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates and author of “Good Judgment,” blames this growing personal deficiency — what he characterizes as a “risk of losing this essential capability,” or what he calls “receptivity” — on a combination of technology, social media and artificial intelligence factors.
Davis says people rely so much on their smartphones that they are increasingly unable to make decisions on their own.
These human judgments are “a cognitive capability that you need to actually exercise in order to not lose it,” Davis says. Moreover, Davis proposes that a person’s ability to talk with and connect with others — or interpersonal skills — is also at risk. “If your head’s in your phone, you’re meeting people through Tinder profiles or you’re basing your business decisions based purely on a resume and not really seeing or spending time with a person, you’re losing your core human capability to have insight into other people,” Davis says.
From the employer’s perspective, senior managers value these problem-solving and human interaction skills when they consider hiring or promoting employees.
How should we “exercise” these receptivity and cognition capabilities? By consciously reducing personal interaction with our smartphones and other “screen activities” and physically exercising, reading and reflecting. These non-screen activities can also assist in addressing — and mitigating — the effect of technology dependency and overuse on a person’s mental health.
Research has shown that overexposure (and, by extension, dependency) to digital technologies can lead to mental health issues with anxiety, depression and addiction. The evidence shows these mental health issues are particularly evident among young people, from teenagers through early adulthood. This intense dependency on digital technology is likely to manifest in high levels of stress and insomnia.
Yet, dealing with the negative aspects of too much dependency on digital technologies does not require a “Luddite”-like employee response to introducing new technologies in the workplace. Artificial intelligence — or AI — tools and systems are being introduced in organizations at dizzying speeds across industries. While employees are expressing legitimate concerns about how AI technologies will negatively affect their jobs, new opportunities will emerge from the growing use of these technologies.
Recently, the Forbes Technology Council identified 20 ordinally arranged, essential professional and managerial traits and expertise — “wholly human skills more than ever in demand” — that all industries will require as AI technologies spread and become embedded. As the council notes, “There are certain invaluable abilities and traits AI can’t replicate.”
The council recognizes the following cognitive abilities and social skills traits: critical thinking; reasoning and scientific thinking; communication; “outside-the-box” thinking; collaboration; persuasiveness; problem solving; empathy; and interpersonal skills.
With these human skills related to better managing technology dependency, it would behoove individuals to address their technology dependency with a balanced personal approach to managing time allocated to digital technologies while enhancing their lives with an increased emphasis on physical exercise, reading and reflection, and social interactions.
The employee incentive is that without these cognitive and social skills being further developed, the future AI workplace (and employers) will not be as receptive to considering them for opportunities, in either a professional or managerial capacity.
Either manage the technology, or the technology will manage you.