The Importance of Face-to-Face Interaction

Today’s topic is connection. After weeks, months and years of remote everything, this spring has reinforced for me the importance, power and humanity of in-person connection.

As I write this message, I sit on a low window ledge in the corner of a hotel hallway—earbuds in, laptop open—at the gathering of the ASU+GSV Summit. Yet, all these “I am working” signals have been for naught. Colleagues I’ve met only via zoom or haven’t seen in person for years have tapped me on the shoulder to say hi, shared wide (unmasked) smiles and plopped down to chat.

And, I have warmly welcomed every, single interruption. I have missed this.

I am not alone.

The energy and joy at last Friday’s in-person Years of Service luncheon was extraordinary as colleagues celebrated and cheered each others’ achievements. During my campus visits, I felt the difference between being in the room and being on the zoom, and I heard from our students, faculty and staff that they felt this difference, too.

Without question, the flexibility created by online and synchronous video classes and telework is important, vital and lasting, but the distance they create is not challenge-free. I’m reminded of a (pre-pandemic) song by the band the Head and the Heart, “Rivers and Roads,” which mournfully laments the distances that grow up over time between family and friends—even when they’re for the best of reasons—noting, “Nothing is as it has been.”

After the past two years, nothing will be as it has been, nor should it. Yet, this spring, I have had the chance to cross the rivers and drive the roads to re-connect, and it mattered more than I expected. Thank you for connecting!