This is a call for greater authenticity in speech and writing. The "company line" gets created, often by unspoken consensus and by repetition. I saw that the British Psychological Society reported that letters expressing gratitude raise recipients' spirits more than expected. I thought about the emails I receive every day thanking me for my patronage at this store or that. I believe my spirits are not raised even a little bit by such expressions because I think the expressions are churned by unfeeling machines. They seem mechanical in the worst sense.
I believe computers can be very helpful but so far, I haven't felt that they care. The first story in Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" is about a well-built robot that is taking better and more immediate care of a young child that its biological mother. The reader can see that the affection of the child for the robot is greater than its feeling for Mom. I know that people can have strong affection for their car but I imagine that our feelings for that '64 Chevy have as more to do with memories of young married life than with affection for fenders and steering wheels.
If the boss orders 6700 copies of the letter expressing gratitude to the customer and I receive one of them, I will toss it. I realize somebody human composed the text and somebody or bodies human is responsible for the printing and the mailing but the sheer numbers and impersonality of the operation block the emergence of any strong feeling on my part. I am not sure what to advise the boss to do to achieve a more human and touching connection. Maybe the actual number of exchanges between a real human and me matters.
I may get yet another request for my "feedback" and reaction to my experience of shopping with this store but that is not going to help. I get too many such requests and I don't want to spend my declining days answering questions about my experience with them. The truth is that I don't really want to be buddies with the company or the manager or the checkout clerk. I want to pay my money and forget about the human side of their business. I am not that loving and caring.
