January Challenge…Loss or Gain, a Matter of Perspective
Kathy has a great challenge for the month, did you do yours yet.
January Challenge…Loss or Gain, a Matter of Perspective
When the World Wide Web began to make an appearance, I asked my husband what it was. I had absolutely no clue. Larry explained that it was a way for people all over the world to connect and speak to each other.
My first thought was…why do we need this to connect with people across the world? We have people here we see and speak with every day?!
This month’s challenge “Things We Have Lost to the Internet” asks us to share what we have observed thanks to our heavy dependence, reliance, and love of Cyberville.
While I am retired and worked for just one year as an agent, I have worked in jobs where being “connected” would have helped…tremendously.
Real Estate Agent…
My one year in real estate was around 1986. The Big Book was still there with all of the listings…we had pagers so we could be in touch with our office. I remember that if you were paged “1” you needed to call the office immediately. Of course, if you were out, you had to look for a payphone!
The Flip Side…Looking back, while having cell phones and the internet to access listings, I doubt in today’s tech society if the experience I had would be replicated. In the brokerage I worked for, agents came to the office almost every day unless they were showing. I had access to years of Real Estate knowledge at my fingertips.
Someone I will always remember is a beautiful lady who’d been in the business for years. She came into the office directly after attending morning mass and would say to me “Come on, let’s go look at houses.” She could tell you what a house originally sold for and if it had been remodeled.
Finding Jobs Not HousesPrior to real estate, I staffed offices with administrative staff. This was before real estate so even more “primitive.”
The Runners Here!
The placement agency I worked for was the largest in Houston and had 6 offices. Once a day a runner brought new job orders to the offices and these were placed in our boxes. When it was announced that he was here, we’d ambush the poor person so we could get our hands on the job that would be perfect for our applicant.
Imagine in this low-inventory market if your only way of finding out about a new listing was once a day when it was delivered to your office!
Someone Answer the Phone!
Again…remember, no cell phones, email, or text messaging.
When we had to reach an applicant to inform them of an interview we put a “fish” on their line.
What is that you say? We would call their number and let it ring. Remember these were actual phones with multiple lines. The number of the applicant would ring until someone picked up. When we saw this, we would call the applicant back
I actually felt sorry for the poor cats and dogs having to listen to their owner’s ringing phone!
The Flip Side…When I was trained, I went into the interview with nothing but my eyes and ears. I could not take notes so I had to listen to what the applicant said. In preparing them for an interview, we spoke in person or over the phone. I didn’t send her a video on how to interview.
To follow up on what I said in the beginning when I first learned of the World Wide Web… we do have people around us and what I think we’ve lost to the internet is our connection to those people.
Yes, we are now connected as we are here in this community with people from all over the US. But even that is often only via texts and emails. Thankfully FaceTime and Zoom have added a much-needed layer to Cyber communication.
I love the technology we have today. Something to remember is that technology is a tool that is designed to assist us in our lives.
It is not nor should it replace what is so important in living our lives…being a human being…being humane to each other and viewing each other not as objects in our cyberworld but real people with real feelings.
This is an entry in the January Challenge--Things We Have Lost to the Internet hosted by Gary Frimann, CRS, GRI, SRES, and Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist
Room Service! Home Staging
Palm Beach County Home Stager
561-914-6224 Kathy@MrsHomeStaging.com
www.MrsHomeStaging.com
Discover the Possibilities of Your Home!
Comments(7)