I had been out of the corporate world for a few years so when I stepped back in I was amazed at what I experienced. There was a lack of politeness and plain courtesy that I hadn’t seen in the past. Etiquette in everyday communication seemed to have gone out the window.

What I notice is that everyone is too busy hearing themselves talk that they miss what others are trying to say. My biggest issue of late is that people seem to prefer communicating by email, text, tweet, Skype, or Facebook — rather than picking up the telephone. Why is that? Why have we started avoiding voice-to-voice conversations? I know everyone is trying to save time but the lack of real human interaction leaves me feeling completely dissatisfied.

And I bet I’m not the only one.

I predict things will come full circle and people will start to feel they need that personal interaction that’s starting to be missing from our culture. People need to feel that they matter and they need to feel appreciated. These are fundamentally human needs that technology can’t replace.