Roger, anything in excess will beat and betray its purpose. So is the excess use of technology. However, the introduction of technology use within a well set strategy taking into consideration all consequences including economic, social and technical will add value. Another very important aspect is involving the people that technology will be addressed to them in order to reduce resistance to change symptoms and therefore gain the voluntary joining of the employees or users into the new setup.

Now, if we look at the aspect of human interaction that usually diminishes with more technology use, that will be an aspect that has to be taken seriously. Even with the introduction of more technology the option of human interaction should be kept open and the leadership should find alternatives for people to see each other in different set ups if possible.

Moreover, many companies or institutions introducing technology in heavy doses are also offering technological alternatives permitting face-to-face interaction online. Is this sufficient, it is not for the extrovert persons who seek both interactions real and virtual and maybe it is sufficient for introverts who in their nature would not mingle with others and prefer their own world.

It is the organization's responsibility, however, to seek solutions for any persons irrespective of their personalities to offer human-interaction for the sake of the respect of the humanity of people. Otherwise, humans will join the machines world!

Well , i think that excess use of technology is very similar to excess use of drugs. Unfortunatly, we abuse technological advancments instead of wisely using them and this has been well experimented and tested in the way people use and interact with social media applications. The later have a great impact on the overall human behavior and ways of dealing with things around us. In brief, excess use of technology is a double edged sward having to a certain point equal negative and positive influences .

Dear Hsu,

I totally agree with what you said.

But, how can we moderate the use of technology so that we can be on the safe side?

Roger!

If one examines the progress of technology since the industrial revolution, one would realize that we have progressed from an industrial age (19th century) to one that is characterized by automation (20th century) to one that is characterized by smart technologies (21st century). Change is inevitable in this regard - e.g., in the second half of the 20th century we have witnessed several of these changes or advances in technology - radio, TV, satellite, computer, etc. The challenge is to cope with these changes and to keep up with the advancement in technology - a fact that is now happening at a very fast rate. Technology and sciences are leap frogging past one another such that the advancement of one domain promotes the advancement of the other...

Today, smart technology has evaded the global society and has perturbed the way people are interacting with each other - take for example the social media and social networks, while they are keeping individuals away from personal physical contacts they have facilitated their contact through cyberspace at much larger circles, and what is more important is that this is happening instantaneously. Today, and through these media or networks, you have the chance to recognize and meet people that otherwise would had been impossible previously (e.g., ResearchGate or LinkedIn) - Well! this is one form of a change, and we have to get used to it... Several other examples exist on different scales and in different domains and are all the result of the use of advanced technology.

Now, to go back to your question "excess use of technology and the effect on human interaction". This is a question that relates directly to the future generations and I believe that it has, as we say in engineering, a natural response that we ought not try to change... the outcomes are going to happen no matter what. So to put this idea in our context, people will adapt to whatever technology is offering and will continue their daily living while adapting to those little changes that are offered by technology everyday. Certainly, not all people use technology at the same scale, following for example a normal distribution, those that use technology scarcely and those that use technology excessively are not significant but the majority use it wisely - now the human interaction as said before might change from one that is characterized as being physical to one that is cyber digital and one that is characterized as being one-to-a-few to one that is one-to-many!

Along the evolution of technology another field was accompanying the trail. Behavioral sciences and the role of human interaction with technology. As Hsu mentioned earlier, many psychological and behavioral aspects are on stake with excess of technology. Recently, I was researching the impact of excess use of facebook and linkedIn on people who are extroverts or introverts... Much research is ongoing on that.

Can we moderate the use of technology, at some point I say yes, by using blended education (using technology to enable education and learning) which means one has to plan well how to achieve educational objectives using a mix between traditional pedagogy and technology (constructivist approach).

Maybe it is easy to regulate the impact of excess use of technology on the human body (ergonomics) but it is a tough call to apply that where nurturing is needed since we need to address cognitive and behavioral factors of the users.

Dear Sue (Hsu Mon Pyae Nang):

I believe that teenagers are in general excellent learners of technology by their very nature - just give them a new technology and they will uncover its hidden parts. For instance, if you get into a train in Shanghai or New York, you will find people from different age groups working on their portable devices doing different things. I have seen so many lay people, particularly adults, learning technology by themselves.

Now, for those who are slow learners, you might want to create for them interactive applications that teach them how to use technology incrementally.

Regards!

Dear Sue,

I don't know if the word Moderate is so easy to define in this issue.

How can you monitor you kids for example?

How can you convince them about what to use and how to use it?

Dear Sue:

You have raised an interesting issue by separating technology users into two groups: i) those that use it for entertainment and ii) those that use it for education.

While reading your question, I was thinking about "How the Arab Spring did Proliferate" and I was imagining a picture I saw back then of a Bedouin in Yemen holding his mobile phone up in the air and transmitting the image of an eruption of rebellious mass against the government to his local contacts - but his picture was transmitted to the world! We cannot ignore that this is a proper use of technology by a lay person who is also an economically deprived citizen...

Now, going back to the education - particularly for young individuals in the developing world: Well, I believe that one ought to start by providing these youngsters with technology that is affordable and then stimulate their interest in using this technology in building knowledge or in creative work.

One way to go about doing this is to go to public schools and create mini competitions for applications development that would allow best developers to win awards (e.g., mobile phones, notebooks, scholarships, etc.)

Being a graduate student at Nanyang Technological University, you could work with your advisors and other university officials to build such a project and raise funds for it or apply for a grant to fund it... this way you would be contributing to the advancement of the said social class while at the same time promoting your career through early achievements.

I think that at this time I will leave you with this seed idea to think about and then we can take it from there.

I am interested in hearing your feedback!

Sincerely,

ZAF

Excess use of technology (like smart phones and internet) has reduced the human interaction face-to-face but on the other side it has also increased the human interaction on social networks like facebook, twitter etc.

Regards,

Nitish

In my opinion, technology has a great effect on the human interaction. I agree with what was mentioned previously that not all of the people use technology excessively, and the interaction might change from one to few into one to many. But, I want to address the issue as related to children. In my opinion, whether the excess use of technology helps or affects negatively the children's interaction or their thinking depends on what specific technology is being used, its corresponding frequency and the way it is used. If these were addresses in the right manner, then the effect of technology would be addressed.

We are living in a world where the new generation is technology wit. It is not an issue of defining how kids use technology rather what is needed is how to capitalize on what they know and create focus to that knowledge in such a way they have fun while they learn.

Making learning fun is what internalize skills and good habits in the use of technology.

One must be careful here, it depends on the culture. In the last decades girls were trained more on social sciences away from basic sciences, today things are changing.

Females are many more as CEO's of successful On-line businesses. And although boys are attached more to war games and so forth, girls are attached to creativity games and should be encouraged to continue doing so.

Using technology in excess and defining areas of weakness as related to human interaction has led to the creation of alternative means to express psychological states electronically, I mean here the use of Smileys. I have seen chat logs with a major inter-mixing of either letter colors, smileys, and written expressions reflecting deep emotions almost (almost) simulating a live interaction. Moreover, with the availability of the webcam or (Skype) the situation became almost real.

As observed I used the word "Almost" several times indicating that we are still away from the real thing. Here, we have to stand still and ask if the different personalities are affected equally? the answer is no. For some, almost is acceptable and for others, they may look for full face-to-face interaction.

The situation is relative as different people react differently.

Dr. Hamdar and Dr. Hejaze, I totally agree with what you said.

Today I had a conversation with a friend. She was telling me that her 4 years daughter asked her yesterday to bring to her an advanced smartphone as a gift for Christmas because she wants to chat with her friends.

This is scaring. Raising children these days is so difficult.

How could we manage to educate our children about the proper use of Technology?

Plus to that, how can we control what they are doing with these smart phones?

Roger, we need to educate them by identifying to our kids what is suitable for them to use at what age. Meanwhile, alternatives have to be offered in terms of educational games.

Discipline is highly needed in such a way to offer them (the kids) tools suitable to their age and their growing requirements.

Dr. Hejaze, how can you convince them that the smartphone is not suitable for their age and all their friend have it already?

It is a matter of creating an in-house culture for the family. Imitating is not healthy. Explaining that, is highly related to the discipline practiced within family constraints. Enforcement sometimes is necessary.

Usually introducing technology to kids should be monitored, that is only at home for specific length and duration of time.

I totally agree

Thanks for the question and Thanks for all valuable comments. I wish all of you a Happy New Year 2014.