By Helen Chard, Senior Recruitment Consultant Eden Ritchie Recruitment

As an IT recruitment consultant, I am always looking to see what new innovations are being tested or coming onto the market.

Embracing technology is something that you don’t have a choice in within today’s society – from staying in touch to everyday work, and while we owe a debt of gratitude to the brilliant minds who have gifted us such innovations, it would be short-sighted to consider technology as solely a boon to humanity. Can you imagine doing your job without the help of technology of any kind? But what about the old fashion way of communication and entertaining yourself. Research is divided from realising the damage this is doing to exploring further options that we don’t need to extend ourselves too much to get things achieved.

A colleague mentioned that microchipping was being carried out instead of travel cards. So during my research – which I would like to add I achieved via my laptop instead of traipsing to the library and spending many hours trying to get real time information – I discovered that microchipping is now the new trend. Whilst at this stage a person’s decision to be ‘microchipped’ is completely voluntary, there are now people who have undergone the procedure which enables them to get into secure buildings and their cars without cards or keys.

The technology has the potential to enable people to turn on lights and log into computers or pay for things with a wave of a hand.

Where a world is on the brink of obesity and turning to devices to communicate, do we need a microchip just to make taking out your keys or purse less of a hassle or will this be the “new norm”?

I think that like everything we need to embrace the old with the new, social media is great for when we are not able to pick up the phone or speak in person to someone, especially when messages can be misinterpreted if the comma is not in the right place or spell check is not used. Social media is a platform that we can all hide behind and not sit in a group having conversations and discussions, where we can share our ideals and thought processes, which prepares us to negotiate and deal with areas we may not agree on in our working week.

And whilst all the social platforms are a necessity during certain situations like COVID, we still need to STOP, REBOOT and realise that, as humans, we are sociable creatures that need interaction otherwise will we become obsolete like so many things before us.

So, the next time you reach out to email or message someone, why not pick up the phone and have a conversation or get up and walk to your colleagues’ desk and on the weekend, STOP and smell the roses – the ones outside and not on a screen.