Communicating With Thumbs - Not Tongues

  It hards to believe that 2010 is drawing to a close.  It seems like just a year or two ago since we celebrated the arrival of the year 2000 and anxiously waited with bated breath the anticipated fallout that Y2K was going to have on the technology that drive's much of our world.   
  Ten year's later and technology's impact has become even more prominent in our day-to-day lives.  You don't think so?  Well ten years ago there wasn't a "Facebook" now it's home to what 500 million people? Ten years ago cell phones were widely used by many especially those of us in business, now you are in the minority if don't own one and some of us no longer have a land-line at home.  With younger generations a cell phone isn't for talking, it's texting.  Who would have thought back in 2000 that communicating with your thumbs would replace the use of our tongues.  Dial up Internet access is virtually a thing of the past with WiFi connections now being available in coffee shops, hotels and even on city streets.  Ten years ago amidst the threat of Y2K, I remember spending $4,000 on two new computers for a retail business I owned at the time, today I could buy vastly superior ones for roughly a tenth of that amount. 
  Yes a lot has changed technologically in the last ten years and the rate of change we will experience in the future will not only continue, it will escalate in terms of the amount of information we process, the speed at which it is done and perhaps most significantly how it is done.  Despite all of this, relationships still count.  Whether it's with family, freinds or in business, the fundamentals of what constitutes a strong relationship is still an integral part of our success as human beings.  Honesty, trust, integrity, ethics and other qualities that form our basic character make us successful as husbands, wives, parents, teachers, entrepreneurs, employees, politicians and so on and can't be replaced by technology.  Technology can enhance those relationships or in some cases hinder them depending on how it is used.
As the year draws to a close, it's a great time to reflect on our relationships and how they can be made stronger with technology or without.  Have a very Happy New Year and a healthy, prosperous 2011.