Tech Talk

 “If you can’t say something nice…post it on Facebook” seems to be the new misguided mantra for way too many people.  While it’s great that there are cool tech tools to help us connect, we can’t totally abandon the rules of real communication.   And, we must make sure not to use technology to replace real relationships.

Preparing for my new topic “How to Maintain High Touch Relationships in High Tech Times” I had the pleasure of surveying a group of tech savvy professionals regarding their pet peeves about how people misuse and abuse technology to communicate.   Here are my top 10 favorite responses:

1. Using “Reply All” unnecessarily

2. Misusing social media to complain, push political views, overshare or inappropriately display intimacy

3. Not asking the recipient the best way to communicate with them

4. Hiding behind technology to avoid face time and productive discussion

5. Returning a call without first listening to the voice mail, then asking why you called

6. Responding to a phone call with a text or email

7. Generic requests to connect on LinkedIn with no explanation of why you should or how you know them

8. Contacting with all methods—email, call, text, IM—at the same time!

9. 15 minutes of multiple texts to resolve something that could have been handled with a 30 second phone call

10. Never turning devices off and always distracted