The advancement of technology doesn’t necessarily always have to be a bad thing.

While many suggest that technology and social media alone have caused us to communicate less effectively, this Black founder says it can also mean the complete opposite.

“If the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that both of those things are kind of true,” said Travis Montaque on the latest episode of Black Tech Green Money (BTGM). “When I think about some of the things that we’ve done at Holler from a research perspective, one of the things we look for is how people are utilizing technology and platforms to connect with each other.”

Holler is a messaging technology company that delivers content in messaging environments that includes texts, social media, and payment apps.

Montaque shares that during his company’s most recent report, studies found that 42 percent of people message more than they did pre-pandemic.

“If you think about the natural behavior that created the demand for messaging platforms in the first place, it was people being apart,” Montaque shared with BTGM host Will Lucas. “So when we went into quarantine culture we saw more of that type of behavior but what people did during that time was rely on technology to keep in touch with one another.”

He also noted the way in which technology allowed the world to stay connected to one another despite stay-at-home orders.

“I do think that technology has created avenues for people to stay connected and be closer and I can’t imagine a world over the last 16 months where we didn’t have technology,” continued Montaque.

It’s things like this that inspired him to create Holler.

“One of the reasons I founded Holler is because technology still has so much missing in terms of connection,” he said.

For more on Montaque’s thoughts on how emojis are a new language, how to bring empathy in technology, and more, listen to the full episode of Black Tech Green Money below:

Travis Montaque

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