Starting, growing, and maintaining an online marketing business is something billions of people worldwide are trying to do as one of the ways to stay hip with technology. If you don't have a PC, notebook, ipod, Utube video, Facebook profile, MP3 player, and the whole shebang, you are just not with the program.

I guess that means I'm out of it, even though I am an online marketing business owner, because I only own a PC, and don't even have a cell phone or text messaging. In fact, text messaging has become my number one pet peeve lately, with the cell phone being a close second.

People love cells and text messaging to the point that the person they are with in the current moment is less important than checking for, or writing messages to someone else! Uh-oh! There's no better way to make someone feel like an object rather than a person than to tune her out in favor of that cell or text message.

Trust me folks, this is not a handy social skill in your personal life, or your online marketing business life! Are you losing it because of technology? If you are trying to win over new prospects and customers, you better not be thinking your incoming cell or text message is more important than who you are with!

This is a sure way to lose business if you are not giving your potential customers 100% of your attention when trying to make a deal, sign up a new member, or just get someone's feet wet with your online marketing business programs and services.

If you think this is petty information from an opinionated online marketing business owner, then think again! Do you remember being a kid and watching TV with someone, and asking a burning question only to be told, "Shhhh! I'm watching this!" or "Shhhh! I want to hear this"? How did that make you feel?

It probably made you feel less important than a piddly piece of technology! If you run a business, you can't afford to let it zap you of your social skills. Yes, you have to spend time working on the PC or notebook to get your work done. But you can't expect to run a healthy online marketing business when you shut out the rest of the real world and real people in it!

Have you ever gone out for a nice dinner and the person you're with pulls out their text messaging? How embarrassing is that!? As your potential customer, that tells me that you are an online marketing business owner who finds me boring, and you don't care, or think I am at all important compared to the technology you have to attend to. Uh-oh!

Now you may think that communicating online in discussion forums, chat rooms, MSN, and this whole cell phone and text messaging thing is still interacting with others. But wait a minute! You are still losing an essential component of human interaction here!

The human brain is capable of sending a piece of written text over the phone, but only when you are face-to-face with someone and in their presence, can the human brain release neurons that feel what the other person is feeling, sense what they are sensing. You only get a gist of this online.

Empathy is something we can all have but it's developed by being with people, not by having a relationship with your computer. If you know that human relationships are the essence of all our online marketing businesses, then you will realize the importance of in-person contact with others.

The point of this article is to make you aware that your online marketing business and other techno-gadgets of this new techno-internet age may be ruining your social skills. These skills are so important in building our business and personal relationships.

Remember that your online marketing business is about relationships, not about technology. If you have well developed social skills by being around other people, your business will attract more customers.