Will we look back on this past decade as the one in which new technology forever changed the art of conversation?
One example is provided by a recent conversation that I had with my daughter, The Franchise Princess.
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Me: Princess, did you talk to your friend, Bridgette today?
Princess: Yes.
Me: What did she say?
Princess: She said that I can come over and hang out.
Me: Great. What are you guys going to do?
Princess: We will probably go onto Facebook, and then play with her new Wii.
Me: Great. I’ll bring you over there at about 1PM.
Princess: Thanks, Dad! I’ll tell her now.
Princess: Ok, I told her.
Me: That’s weird. I didn’t hear you call her.
Princess. I texted her.
Me: Oh.
Going back to the days of the telegraph, communicating electronically has been something that all of us have gotten used to. Technology even moved fast, back then.
Did you know that within 20 years, telegraph wires criss-crossed the United States and, by 1866, a transatlantic telegraph cable connected North America and Europe. Christine Rosen, in an essay, recently wrote, “The triumph wrought by these technologies was not merely practical. Subtly and not so subtly, these technologies also altered … not just how we communicate, but how we feel.”
Today, of course, cellphones, e-mail and digital cameras connect us more efficiently — and more cheaply — than either the telegraph or the telephone. But do these devices, as Rosen puts it, effect “subtle transformations on our natures“? Entire article is here.
As a future or current small business owner, you need to be aware of the changes taking place, and plan how you will use the technologies that are changing the ways in which we “talk.”
You can not ignore them anymore. If you are the owner of a hardware store franchise in Independence Iowa, for instance, and you don’t have a local presence on the internet, you are losing money.
If you are the multi-unit owner of a fast food franchise, and you are not using technology to inform your customers of weekly and monthly specials, you are losing money.
If you are a franchise sales executive, you need to figure out better ways to talk to your potential new franchise owners. Old school isn’t working.
We don’t have to like that fact that “talking” isn’t what is used to be. We just have to adapt.
Are you?
One more thing. Please don’t even think about texting while you drive. People are dying every day because they are doing this stupid thing.
Whatever it is, it can wait a minute or two. Just pull over and call the person.
