Tech Leader Pro podcast 2024 week 13, we are all avatars now

After the pandemic, it feels like we are all online avatars now. Do you truly know anyone anymore? Notes: After the pandemic, it feels like we are all online avatars now. Do you truly know anyone anymore? We even hard a short-lived marketplace for unique NFT avatars, which was a strange time. Remote work has reduced us to online avatars, that are designed to represent us on Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Our professional avatars are always cheerful and ready to help. Meanwhile on social media, people sometimes hide behind their avatars, and become toxic and aggressive. Hence the anonymous coward, or keyboard warrior is born. Most people are not confrontational face-to-face, but feel emboldened behind an avatar. In my own personal life, I have noticed that relationships outside of my family have become more transactional, and even disposable. I sometimes think that the toxicity of social media is starting to creep into real life, at least at street level where strangers are interacting with one another. I also see the same aggression and lack of empathy starting to creep into my professional life, which is sad to see. I expect work toxicity will increase as a result of online behaviours seeping in, and it will become the norm with future generations. As leaders, how do we work against this? Ask your team to switch their cameras on. Insist that communications remain civil, especially when people disagree. Encourage discourse: people need to learn how to disagree again! Lead with empathy, put people first. We should never behave online in a manner that we would not do offline. But in reality, most already do. Sadly negative online cultures are impacting upon our offline cultures, making real life more toxic and bleak. We need more positive examples online! That is why I personally gravitate towards the e/acc culture, and seek out other positive examples online. What I am working on this week: Ongoing testing of the internet search indexer for the Alpha Framework. Media I am enjoying this week: Diaspora by Greg Egan. Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/639-Tech-Leader-Pro-podcast-2024-week-13,-we-are-all-avatars-now