Since the development of society, human beings have been creating tools to supplement the brain, in particular our faculty of memory. Before writing most cultures and civilizations had strong oral histories and people could perform what would today seem like extraordinary feats of the mind. The Odyssey and all it’s 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter are thought to have at one time been passed down through oral tradition. Writing things down served to lessen the burden placed on our brain by providing an external memory system. That system was not much changed, until the advent of the Internet, and for better or for worse the Internet has changed the way we think and how we live.Walk outside and simply look around you and you will see ninety percent of people, either on a cell phone, or with a phone clutched tightly in their hands. With the push of a button, the world is at our fingertips. All at once, we are more connected than we've ever been and more disconnected with reality. Ask yourself, how much time do you really spend with others? And by "really spend," think about how much of that time are you on your phone. Can you honestly say you are connected to that other person, whether a friend, family member, or client, or are you physically there, but a million miles away?
Constant use of the Internet seems to have an effect on our mental capabilities, as well as social lives. In 2011, scientists at Columbia University, performed a study in which they researched the effects a constant access to information has on the brain. Their results suggest that as the Internet has become a larger part of our lives, our minds have adapted to a life saturated with technology.After four different memory tests, the scientists, led by Dr. Betsy Sparrow, found that participants made little effort to remember something when they expected to have access to it at a later time, as the Internet allows one to do. In the final experiment, the scientists were surprised to conclude that people were more likely to remember where to find information as opposed to the information itself, when they believed it would be readily available to them. The Internet, filled with "sophisticated algorithmic search engines," is an external source of knowledge, not unlike an external hard drive for our life.A separate longitudinal study, by Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson, found that building up participants connectedness and responsiveness toward others and themselves altered their mood positively and strengthened their brain-heart connection, which is scientifically referred to as a vagal tone. Increasing your vagal tone means your body can better regulate your internal health systems and, according to Dr. Fredrickson, "increase [your] capacity for connection, friendship and empathy." These findings seem to suggest that despite the benefits technology brings, allowing us to be constantly checked in, face-to-face relationships are good for our mental and health functions.
As event planners, no one knows better the power of the Internet, or how greatly the Internet has changed the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we live. Think about how many emails you send, not to mention how many you receive on a daily, even hourly basis. Work no longer stops when the bell rings at 5pm, but infiltrates into the late hours of the night. There’s the iCals and Google Cals, and if you’re having problems with anything, communication, locating a venue, locating vendors, staying organized, most likely there’s an app for it. You only need to think of the clients -- who at one point deferred to your expertise and now, thanks to Pinterest and the like, insist on telling you how things should be done -- to know how the Internet has changed things.It’s hard to remember what the days when people carried around physical phone books and remembered more phone numbers than simply their own. It seems impossible, now, to think that at one point hosts could recognize every person on their guest list by sight and by name. Face-to-face connection in business seems to be on the decline, but it is hard not to stress the importance of such relationships.Think about how much we all really do rely on the Internet for everything. Imagine what would you do if you’re cell phone was gone and the Internet shut down? Would you return to the basics and fundamentals of event planning? Would you even know how?In business, it's always important to figure out what it is that your client wants. I believe that, in addition to simply doing the job you were hired to do, great event planners distinguish themselves by adding that personal touch and connectedness that Dr. Fredrickson described. At the heart of the matter, clients want to feel that you are invested in them, to feel that you have their best interest at heart and that they are important, and that process could begin by simply knowing their name, their face, or by genuinely taking an interest in their interests, really listening.
I don’t mean to cause a panic or suggest as many did after the Columbia study was published, that Google is making us dumber or making things more impersonal. In a way maybe it is, but it is also allowing us to be more efficient with how we live our lives. We can choose to look at our reliance on the Internet as an external memory as way of adapting to a more advanced world. Barring a world disaster or Electromagnetic Pulsewiping out electricity, I don’t think the Internet is going anywhere, and if it must be there then we all must learn to use it to the best of our advantage.Of course, there are ‘old school’ ways to improve your memory and repair your personal and business relationships. Ways to help you figure out how to remember faces, names and numbers. But it is good to remember that even Writing had its detractors. Socrates, in Plato’s Phaedrus, worried about the affect the development of writing would have on the people. He worried that as people used writing more they would, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful,” and would simply, “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction.” His worries are eerily appropriate for the confusing place we find ourselves in today, and while many of his and our worries exist with merit, let us not forget all the good and all the advancement technology does provide.With every cloud there is also a silver lining.How do you think the Internet has changed your job as an event planner? Are you fearful or hopeful about how the Internet is changing your life? Please let us know in the COMMENT section below and check out our post: Top 10 Event Planning Twitter Handles!