Human interaction is becoming less and less the norm. IMs, text messages, email, and even the phone have allowed us to limit our interaction with others. We don't have to talk to people or even interact with them offline, beyond our immediate family, friends, and co-workers. However, the online relationships that we have created are merely surface level ones, unless we consciously expand upon this.
The biggest criticism of Generation Y has been its members' inability to step out from behind the monitor, or put down the phone and meet the people that they are interacting with on a more personal level. The best decision I've made in my professional career has been having the balls to pick up the phone and call a random person, for the first time, to make a better connection. It ended up being a pretty solid move. (Thanks, Daniel Honigman, for actually picking up when I called.)
Surface relationships are meaningless to a large extent. You need to make tactile impacts on people in order to have any interactions with them beyond acquaintance-level or legitimately learn something from them beyond what they write or say.
Want to understand a person and learn from them? Get together for a beer or coffee. Shoot the shit, talk about baseball, common interests, and whatever else comes up. And don't be the person who suddenly launches into a business pitch (unless that is what you explicitly agreed to discuss).
Tweeting someone first and then gradually escalating your relationship is a great way to get to know someone better. Twitter provides the elevator pitch of your personality right off the bat. You have a pretty good idea of what someone is going to act like and how they operate. If they seem interesting, expand it to DM, email, phone conversations, or even a meeting in person.
Tweetups take a lot of the leg work out of this, but make sure to take meetings with people who you feel would be great to talk to on their own, or use that Tweetup to set up another meeting. For some, this comes naturally; for others, this can be more difficult. But actual face time and a commitment to human interaction is going to separate Gen Y's losers and winners over the next 10-20 years.
Here's the thing though: this isn't exactly a new phenomenon. Creating meaningful relationships has always been important. The difference? Most of the people around you in Generation Y are still grasping at straws.
So ball up. I want to meet you (regardless of your generation), and I want to take you out for coffee or a drink.
*Note: It is unlikely that I will embrace you like in the picture above. Do not be scared.
Image Credit: Dentyne
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tagged as face time, facetime, gen y disconnect, gen y face time, human interaction, ims, Marketing, networking face time, Personal Branding, text message, tweetups, twitter
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