{"id":1004721058,"date":"2024-07-15T02:59:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T10:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004721058"},"modified":"2024-07-16T06:19:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T14:19:53","slug":"boma-international-special-report-the-nation-needs-cres-power-to-connect-smerconish-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/boma-international-special-report-the-nation-needs-cres-power-to-connect-smerconish-says\/","title":{"rendered":"BOMA 2024 Special Report: The US Needs CRE\u2019s Power to Connect, Smerconish Says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The shift to remote work, and the dramatic decline in office use that followed, is often viewed as mostly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/office-absorption-to-stay-negative-through-2025\/\">a concern for owners<\/a>, managers, occupants and other stakeholders. Yet Michael Smerconish sees it as part of a prime example of an even larger and worrisome trend.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-attachment-id=\"1004721132\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/boma-international-special-report-the-nation-needs-cres-power-to-connect-smerconish-says\/michael-smerconish\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"800,600\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1720960145&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Michael-Smerconish\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;In his keynote address, Michael Smerconish made surprising connections between the decline of in-person office work and a variety of major challenges for American society. Photo by Paul Rosta for CPE&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg?w=800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg\" alt=\"In his keynote address, Michael Smerconish made surprising connections between the decline of in-person office work and a variety of major challenges for American society.\" class=\"wp-image-1004721132\" style=\"width:400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg?resize=300,225 300w, https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/07\/Michael-Smerconish.jpg?resize=768,576 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In his keynote address, Michael Smerconish made surprising connections between the decline of in-person office work and a variety of major challenges for American society. <em>Photo by Paul Rosta for CPE<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have lost so much as a society because so many are working remotely,\u201d the commentator and media personality said during a wide-ranging keynote address at BOMA International\u2019s annual convention in Philadelphia on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The remote-work trend is a telling symptom of broader feelings of social isolation. Smerconish cited studies indicating that workers feel markedly less connected to their colleagues than they did just a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is a reversal from Smerconish\u2019s own experience decades ago as a young lawyer in Philadelphia. On the daily commute to his office, he would routinely encounter people from multiple walks of life and across the economic spectrum. The rise of remote work has further limited those opportunities, and Smerconish called it evidence that \u201cthe class divide is shutting down interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-reconnect\">How to reconnect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The upshot: to re-establish those social ties, \u201cWe have got to physically get back to work in-person. Remote work is depriving people of opportunities to connect, diminishing a valuable source of friendship and reducing the depth of those friendships.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smerconish introduced his address with a compelling parallel. More than half of children today get to school in a private vehicle, rather than on a traditional yellow bus like the one that Smerconish once rode as a student in Bucks County, Pa. \u201cI learned a lot riding bus number 5 \u2026 about social interaction, friendship and\u2014from Mr. Larlick\u2014respect.\u201d He was referring to the bus driver, a fondly remembered, no-nonsense Navy veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>READ ALSO<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/sizing-up-the-prime-office-building-landscape\/\">Sizing Up the Prime Office Building Landscape<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Smerconish warned of other social ills that threaten the fabric of society and, research suggests, increasingly appear to stem from social isolation. A 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that in 2021, 30 percent of teenage girls had considered attempting suicide, and 57 percent reported persistent sadness and hopelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-virtual-impacts\">Virtual impacts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Multiple studies show that both boys and men feel more isolated, and have fewer friends, than in past years. Social media and the internet do much to shape these trends, Smerconish said, noting that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently called on Congress to mandate labels warning that social media poses a health risk for teenagers. \u201cWe need to protect our kids more in the virtual world and less in the real world,\u201d Smerconish asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smerconish also touched on other gaps that have widened dramatically. As a media figure himself, Smerconish attributes a sizeable share of responsibility for the public\u2019s polarization in some political areas as on other political topics. \u201cA mixed media diet is what the country needs,\u201d he asserted. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Smerconish argued that on many issues, Americans share opinions and beliefs on more issues than is generally recognized; he pointed to studies suggesting that public opinion often still resembles a bell curve that peaks in the middle, rather than a barbell that\u2019s weighted most heavily on its extreme ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A large-scale return to the office would benefit the nation\u2019s social fabric, the commentator argued in his keynote address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":1004721132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21808,21742,21747],"tags":[47069],"class_list":["post-1004721058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-latest","category-office","tag-boma-international"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - 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