Why do we still need face-to-face when we can be screen-to-screen?
January 20, 2011 at 11:04 am Christine Renaud 1 comment
With its future matchmaking platform and iPhone app + its current Knowledge markets, E-180 allows us to know at any time who, in our surroundings, is willing to spend an hour with us to help jumpstarting our learning in any field. We aim to connect people who would be interested meeting in person to share knowledge, over a coffee for instance. The question we often get is : why meet in person when you could chat with whomever on Skype? Why limit knowledge sharing to a geographic location when the whole world is offering itself to you through the Interwebs?
It is a good question. And we all know that we still enjoy meeting people, even the ones with whom we develop an online relationship, as the success of Tweetups and Meetup prove it. But what makes a live encounter more meaningful, and such a bounding experience? Well, I don’t know yet. But we are presenting the answer to that question to Ignite Montreal on Febuary 8th, and it’d be nice to have something to say… 
What do you think? Why do we still need face-to-face when we can be screen-to-screen? Read any article, had any experience that would help us to understand? You can also answer this question on Quora!
Entry filed under: Education, Hacker l'éducation, Questions. Tags: Ignite Montreal, Quora.
Christine Renaud
Catherine Therrien
1.
Caroline Lavergne | January 20, 2011 at 12:16 pm
I think meeting face to face trumps meeting online when we are looking for an interaction of heightened “human value”.
Meeting in person creates a moment in time and space: both people had to make an effort to make their presence coincide with eachothers’. Meeting face to face is a higher-value experience, one that will make a more significant mark in your memory than a conversation you had in front of the same screen you stare at every day of the week. The type of memories created will not be the same.
I also find I better remember conversations I had with people face to face. Words said are associated with temperature, smell, glances and stares, touch, voice and intonation. A wider range of stimuli (assuming it doesn’t become distracting) creates a better environment for assimilating content.
Meeting face to face is not necessary when you are looking for a relatively simple answer about a certain type of dog food, but certainly makes for a higher-vaue interaction when you are looking for a business partner or for some career or personal advice.
Hope this helps!