In the real world, people talk and transact face-to-face. Compliments and complaints are both dealt with face-to-face. There’s no fast or reliable disconnect, our actions and inactions are held to account.

But then get online or on the end of a phone and suddenly we feel empowered. People we can filter and run from because there’s always another agent to deal with that nuisance we call a “customer”. Yes, if only business could eliminate the last mile in a money machine, humans. We’ll automate the phones and demand websites and emails. And finally, we’ll curse those pesky emails and let them disappear into the proverbial black hole. Ah yes, where’s the easy life with babes and beaches?

Do we carry those same values to our social life? Does the ability to search and filter new friends and partners lead us to elitist thinking? Does the who-you-know become more important than why-you-know?

In a world more connected than ever, I can’t help thinking we are simultaneously letting slip the value of listening and responding to people for whom we may or may not normally choose.

“I belong here, choice and independence is my right. I choose you, or not, for this is my function of modern living” or so it seems.