Technology and Social Isolation - A Growing Concern
On a visit to the local grocery store I happened to overhear an interesting conversation between an older customer and a checkout clerk. The store had just implemented a self checkout kiosk and the clerk was actively promoting this new technology.
If you’re not familiar with the self checkout, it’s basically a checkout counter where customers scan the products themselves and pay through either their credit or debit card.
Of course the store is interested in promoting this new checkout approach. There are much lower labour costs as the customer does the work of the checkout themselves.
But as the clerk was trying to encourage the use of this new option to this older person, I heard them reply,
"No thank you. I really enjoy having someone to talk to when I buy my things."
This exchange reminded me of another example of a similar situation that was shared during an event on technology and aging that I attended.
One of the older participants shared that going to the bank was a social activity for them. They enjoyed going to their local branch. The people there knew them, welcomed them and asked them how things were going.
However they were starting to feel some pressure to start paying their bills online or use an ATM rather than a teller. They shared that even though they could probably learn how to do this, it would be the social interaction that they would miss the most. Going to the bank was a reason to get out of their house and go and see people.
To take this one step further, think back to when you traveled on public transportation or flown somewhere. How many people did you see that didn’t have their headphones on and face down looking at their device? Did they seem interested in engaging or talking with anyone?
As I reflected on the conversation at the grocery store and these other situations, I couldn’t help but wonder as these new technologies are being introduced, are we seriously considering the social implications to our society.
As we have shared many times before loneliness is a significant concern not only for the elderly but actually for all people. So as much as new technologies may be good for business, do we need to slow down and consider the social implications as well?
But here’s the bigger challenge – how would we actually even do this?
How would we tell a business that we don’t want them to implement something without this social consideration being built into the equation? Would people actually be willing to boycott or pay more for a service in order to make this point?
The good news is that I discovered some companies are in fact taking notice. For example, a Dutch grocery store is actually opening 200 "chat registers" specifically designed for people who want to talk as they check out.
But I have to admit, as I left this self service checkout kiosk I couldn’t help but think that maybe I was part of the problem. By being so quick to accept these new technologies am I considering the bigger social implications?
This much I do know. I’m now looking at things slightly differently and wondering how this is going to affect us all in the long term. If these technologies are taking away some opportunities for human connection, we need to definitely replace these encounters with something else.
