There have been recent protests in Dunedin and Grey Lynn about the closure of local NZ Post Shops. As locals mobilise with their placards, NZ Post points to the new era that will see electronic kiosks replace or supplement face-to-face services.
Now, if you’ve ever queued outside the door of a busy Post Shop waiting to execute a simple transaction, kiosks can’t come soon enough. But if you’re of a certain age and used to a weekly trip to check out your Kiwibank account and have enjoyed this social interaction, the world as you know it will seem to be coming to an end.
The protesters’ placard shout “SAVE OUR POST SHOP”; and NZ Post rejoins, “that’s exactly what we are trying to do”.
After a slew of closures a couple of decades ago, NZ Post is following the trend to migrate online and electronically. As with all such initiatives, it comes at a cost: an ever-reducing amount of face-to-face contact and social interaction.
This adjustment is hard for many, and ultimately we may question how ideal it is for humankind. The economic rationale is beyond challenge. But surely the cost of this relentless journey toward the virtual and online, the impersonal channels of communication, is still debatable.
As communicators we are being challenged to achieve the right balance between the two – personal and impersonal – least the art of human communication is lost. The evidence of demise of real communication is everywhere: we used to write letters, now we email; we used to phone people, now we text.
It is more pronounced among young people where there are signs that real forms of communication have given way to online. Young people will express their most intimate thoughts online, but not in the spoken word. Sometimes with tragic outcomes.
How, then, do we resuscitate the personal at the expense of online? Or is it too late?
Will we be left to sing, with apologies to Joan Baez: Where have all the communications gone? Long time passing…
For the Spanish growers of organic cucumbers and the sprout-growing family of northern Germany – and, indeed EU vegetable growers generally – this advice came too late: It is crucial national authorities do not rush to give information on the source of infection (e-coli), which is not proven by bacteriological analysis.
How can I be so naïve? How could I have missed this, especially when I’ve read so many books about Stalin and his “ism”, as well as Nazism.