face-to-face – Jason Hensel

Jokes about elderly people using technology are plentiful. Yes, it can be humorous to tease those that have a hard time with technology. But the truth is that there are benefits if the elderly (really, any age) are willing to learn something new. Let’s take Facebook, for instance.

Janelle Wohltmann, a psychology graduate student at the University of Arizona, found that people over the age of 65 who learned to use Facebook saw an increase in cognitive performance and became more connected socially.

Yes, you read that correctly. Being connected socially increases cognitive skills. The kicker is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a face-to-face connection.

“The idea evolved from two bodies of research,” Wohltmann said. “One, there is evidence to suggest that staying more cognitively engaged – learning new skills, not just becoming a couch potato when you retire but staying active – leads to better cognitive performing. It’s kind of this ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis.

“There’s also a large body of literature showing that people who are more socially engaged, are less lonely, have more social support and are more socially integrated are also doing better cognitively in older age,” she continued.

More research is needed to determine if Facebook’s social aspect truly contributed to better cognitive performances. Still, Wohltmann feels that the site’s complex interaction is a key component in boosting cognitive behaviors.

“The Facebook interface is actually quite complex,” she said. “The big difference between the online diary and Facebook is that when you create a diary entry, you create the entry, you save it and that’s all you see, versus if you’re on Facebook, several people are posting new things, so new information is constantly getting posted.

“You’re seeing this new information coming in, and you need to focus on the new information and get rid of the old information, or keep it in mind if you want to go back and reference it later, so you have to constantly update what’s there in your attention,” she continued.

This gives hope to anyone that isn’t able to get out and meet people, either by situation or choice. If you can be social online, then you can boost your cognitive abilities. And I’m sure this can expand to include anyone who plays games such as Call of Duty, where you’re playing alongside or against other players.

No, this doesn’t take away from the value of face-to-face interaction and its many benefits, but it does show that our brains can clearly define “social” in more ways than we usually allow in our minds.

(Story materials from the University of Arizona/Alexis Blue. Image via Flickr: Sean Dreilinger/Creative Commons.)

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I work in an industry that places a high value on face-to-face interactions, which made me more attuned to Amanda Palmer‘s recent TED talk, “The Art of Asking.” What struck me was the natural notion of making a human connection to receive and give.

“…through the very act of asking people, I’d connected with them, and when you connect with them, people want to help you” she said.

In the industry I’m in, this is most often accomplished through a format called an “un-conference.” Basically, people gather in small groups to discuss problems and search for solutions to challenges. As you can guess, it’s quite popular, primarily because it’s interactive and because of the face-to-face networking.

That networking is nothing, though, if you’re afraid to ask for help. I think that’s why smaller groups work so well. A large, lecture-style situation is intimidating, whereas, a small group gathering is comforting.

Technology is helping this process, Palmer says. Sure, we may be part of a large group, but the weird thing is that we can feel connected more than ever using the Internet. Maybe it’s just me; I feel like I have more of a chance of communication with a celebrity (use that term loosely) through social media than I do at a huge event.

“Celebrity is about a lot of people loving you from a distance, but the Internet and the content that we’re freely able to share on it are taking us back,” Palmer said. “It’s about a few people loving you up close and about those people being enough.”

Technology can only go so far. It’s a means to an end, and that destination is face-to-face interaction.

“Now, the online tools to make the exchange as easy and as instinctive as the street, they’re getting there,” Palmer said. “But the perfect tools aren’t going to help us if we can’t face each other and give and receive fearlessly, but more important, to ask without shame.”

This brings me to my main point: There’s no reason to meet face-to-face if we’re passive in our interactions. The days of lecture learning are waning. We’re not going to solve problems, find solutions, or change directions if we’re just sitting, nodding our heads and crossing our arms. To me, that’s Palmer’s main point. Even if she is focusing on music, the overall soul of her speech is about enacting change in giver and receiver. That can’t be accomplished by one party being passive. Both need to be active.

Please watch her TED talk, and let me know what you think about it in the comments below

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