The Human Element

As technology continues to progress, we see our lives changing right along with it. One thing many people bemoan is the almost universal death of the banking system where you had a regular cashier who always remembered you and a bank manager who personally approved car loans and the like. Banking is no longer the social activity it once was.

Today, the ATM doesn’t care how your family is doing and if the arm you sprained in a fall a few weeks ago has healed. All it wants is for you to tell it exactly what you need. And most banking transactions are now be done over the phone or on line so you need not step out of the house.

There is a lot to be said for being able to get to your money at any time of the day, any day. That’s certainly a bonus when you remember that only a few short years ago we had to bank within the constraints of dealing exclusively with our own branch and only at certain times.

Many of us “older” folks prefer to deal with a person rather than a machine because we sense intuitively that there is a benefit to interacting face to face with other humans in our daily activities.

As I see it, one of the dangers of technological progress is that people might become more and more isolated. I’m certainly not against making our lives easier especially on days when we may feel under the weather, but if it means human contact becomes the exception rather than the rule, will society not have to pay a price eventually? 

It has been proven that societal elements are required for our well-being; does it not then follow that the more we replace human contact with machines that we are putting ourselves at risk emotionally? To me, the answer is that we must compensate by making certain that we do interact with others each and every day. The human element is becoming a priority that must be cultivated with care.