Hello.

Before the Internet, human interaction was the way to build your business, you called, you wrote letters, you drove miles to have lunch with a potential client; what business you did you did with a handshake. Now you can traverse around the word in seconds, never having to meet that client, only talking through Skype, email, Twitter and text.

The New World offers relationships that never involves human contact. Does that make us just an avatar and binary, a two dimensional being? My greatest fear is this pattern of networking because it has taken out the most basic foundation of a relationship, the touch of a hand.

Attention Span of 140 Characters or less

“…take the time to build the opportunities…go out there, have a conversation once a day on a social network” – Steve Spalding / Izeafest

How do humans find each other now in this New World? Through social networks such as Twitter, Digg, Friendfeed, and others. What if you had to actually meet someone you have networked with online, but all you had was their cartoon avatar? There is an application called Twittervision that matches a photo with an avatar, so that when you are at a conference you can match the person you converse with online with their human image.

If I told you ten years ago you would be creating business relationships with people you will never meet, you would’ve laughed at me and then pulled my card out of your Rolodex. Now it is more common to create these business relationships online in social networks, and you never have to leave home. Or shake their hand.

I am way cooler online

“The handshake is initiated when the two hands touch, immediately. It is commonly done upon meeting, greeting, parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement. In sports or other competitive activities, it is also done as a sign of good sportsmanship. Its purpose is to convey trust, balance, and equality.” – Wikipedia

The internet has been a boon to those who cannot interact socially, they can become whomever they want to be online, by selecting a manly or sexy avatar, by plumping up the resumes, by not letting the gut instinct of meeting someone in person kick in. This is shown in its glory by the panels that well known internet pioneers sit on.

You can see the fumbling, the condescending manner, the social shyness and ineptness that does not come through online. Sarah Lacy’s interview of Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW is a classic example of not knowing the most important rule about interacting with a human, called Listening.

Good Bye

“In computing, the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) authenticates a user or network host to an authenticating entity. That entity may be, for example, an Internet access provider.” – Wikipedia

I believe there will be a backlash to this type of networking; online you can be whatever you want to be, with a few clicks you can write your own new autobiography on your blog; create a persona that can be stretched and pulled into any shape you desire. How will we ever know the truth? Before in a face to face meeting you could suss out if they were genuine, now it’s impossible because of the virtual walls we have put up.

As humans we need to know that we are all not perfect and subject to human frailty. We need to see behind the curtain, to see the little man pulling the levers, only in this way can we understand that there are no demi-gods and that we are all human and share the same fears and wants. This is how loyalty is built. This is how longevity is created. I have more at stake when we have sat down and talked, because I am “real”. Otherwise, as an avatar, I can disappear and leave nothing behind that means anything of substance. Or Human.

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