The Power of In Person Interaction

I was talking to a media executive recently who shared an interesting observation with me… And it struck me - but not in the way I think he intended.

We were discussing how lately it feels like technology is replacing human work and creativity at a faster pace than ever before. It is astonishing. It is also scary.

And it begs the question - what will be left for us to do in a few years?

This exec pointed out that before record players and radio became widespread - many families had pianos in their living rooms. And that after dinner, folks would retire to the living room to sing together. That was the entertainment of the era.

Of course, once you could have Duke Ellington or Glen Miller in your living room, why would you bother singing or playing yourself!  Compared to those geniuses, your singing was not so special. And so eventually, that act of singing as a group in that way became less popular.

This exec was drawing an interesting comparison to Instagram.  He noted that when Instagram started - people would share with each other.  Pictures of their breakfast, their kids, their vacations etc.  There was a communal feel to the platform.

And yet, over time - as people focused on building their businesses on Instagram, and the algorithm prioritized engagement, it became a media platform, where you paid attention to “pros.”  The beautiful people, the talented people who devoted their time to making great “content.”  Instagram became less about your community, and more about passively watching “creators.”

An interesting parallel for sure!

And yet - it is not what stuck out to me about the story. What stuck out to me was how singing together with a group remains to this day one of the most deeply human experiences I can think of.

You can truly lose yourself in a song - when your own voice combines with the voices of others to create one sound. It is an emotionally resonant experience that is hard to explain or recreate in any other way.

And despite having the entirety of recorded music on our phones at the touch of a button - we still prioritize this deeply human experience. The concert scene is thriving.  Religious communities continue to utilize music as a core building block of their services. And karaoke is as popular as ever.

So even though technology has in some ways made singing together obsolete - we humans have not let it go. 100+ years since record players were invented, we still prioritize singing together.

My hope is that this kind of wisdom will extend to other areas of our lives despite the relentless march of technological “progress.”