We aren’t born with BIG thumbs for a lot of reasons! Our very first sign of life is when we inhale our first breath as a newborn. Many times crying accompanies birth and is used to communicate a baby’s wants and needs. So with breath and voice, the infant is given life and a vehicle of communication. Research indicates that specialized vocal processing in the brain develops soon thereafter when babies begin using their voices to create vowel sounds at about two months. By five months babies can recognize whether communication is positive or negative based on the tone of the message. Gradually, vocabularies grow and accompanying expressive and receptive language skills develop. Children use words, tone, body language, and many things to communicate with others as they begin to navigate an uncertain and ambiguous world. Life seems to be progressing as it should UNTIL somewhere during those developmental years, children, or even teens and adults are introduced to new vehicles of communication, like the iPhone or other hand-held devices. Gmail, Apple IDs, Facebook, Instagram, and the like follow closely behind.. They are tools originally designed to improve and increase communication and human connections, but do they? What is gained and lost when those tools are used?

I didn’t give it much thought until recently, but the iPhone so appropriately includes the “i” in its name because the user becomes the reinforced focus of this communication vehicle.  Of course you can have video conversations that improve the ability to have more engaging two way communications with an iPhone, but part of the beauty of this sweet little device belongs in the ability to text and use email and other digital communications to communicate efficiently.

The voice with oxygen pumped through a person’s cardiovascular system is truly no longer necessary with electronic devices to speak and communicate. It’s all thumbs now, baby! The physiological connection to the heart and lung systems that support this communication style are eliminated in favor of a more clerical and intellectual way to correspond with others. The heart center and “PRANA” are not nearly as necessary, and so I believe the communication becomes less human in many ways. I’m not yogini, but I believe there is a direct correlation between mind, body, and spirit when we successfully communicate as a species. You can no longer hear vocal inflections or intonations that differentiate emotional human responses through texting and digital communications. Further, there is no visual connection to the person you’re communicating with, so smiles, tears and facial expressions are gone, nada.

I have often times  wondered after reading a text or Face Book message if the sender would, or even could, say those words in person. Probably not since some of them even hide behind fake profiles. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t feel good to receive a nice message, quite the opposite. It is on the other end of the dark spectrum where problems arise. Negative communications feverishly delivered with thumbs seem to be taking down children and adults these days. Truly. I have seen grown men and women destroyed by words that individuals would never utter in person… Adults, adolescents, and children ending their lives over words from a classmate, friend, child, or family member. Some messages and email chains are extensive continuing for weeks and months, well beyond one or two messages making the damage even more devastating. So I ask, “Where is the disconnection? How does someone decide to send a text message or email that could never be delivered personally?”

As a technology leader for the last 15 years, I have mitigated much thumb-driven horror and would like to dig deeper into the research of body systems related to digital communication. There is a plethora of research on the brain and emotional epicenter as it relates to feelings and communication and whether emotional impulses ever get to the frontal lobe where executive functioning and processes to understand the consequences more comprehensively take place. I will dig into that further, but I also want to examine the other physical structures of the body and their relationship to electronic communications so that our thumbs don’t destroy us.

Let the research and writing begin!