Back when I was growing up, the only options we had for communications besides face to face communications were the telephone and the U.S. Mail. For phone calls, unless the call was local, the cost was often a disincentive to make much more than, say, a 15-minute call. A letter could take several days to reach its destination, which made it difficult to have an interactive conversation with the letter recipient. By far, the best way for people to communicate would be to actually see and talk with them.
Today we have easy and instantaneous ways to communicate. Today’s society not only has regular phones but cell phones that we carry wherever we go. Smart phones serve as handheld computers, accessing the internet, email, and work servers. When on the go, we have text messaging, instant messaging, and email. We take pictures or even videos and send them to whomever we like wherever we like. At home we have personal computers and access to all of these tools as well as computing power stronger than the mainframe computers of the 1980s. We have social media: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There is Skype and other means for making video calls. Many of these communication tools are free, provided that one pays the monthly access fees for unlimited data, calling, and text messaging. We have access to most of the people we wish to interact with on a 24 hour 7 day a week basis.
Having ubiquitous communications is a tremendous advantage to businesses, organizations, and personal relationships. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, and instant messaging allow people to maintain friendships over great distances and to meet new, like-minded people even if they live on the opposite side of the globe. LinkedIn allows professionals to network with old and current colleagues as well as manage their careers. Smart phones allow business people to stay connected to their offices, their customers, and their colleagues. Email saves paper and allows for instant written communications. Cell phones allow for verbal communications when mobile, even to foreign countries. Video and audio conferencing facilitate meetings without having to be physically present, and allow different people from several locations to participate together in a meeting. Skype allows for person-to-person video calls.
These modern conveniences have made for some very interesting behavior that today’s younger generations take for granted. One is communicating with more than one person at a time. I have observed my daughter texting on a cell phone while chatting with three friends on Facebook using her IPAD. I have to imagine it is tough to concentrate on one conversation with several other distractions, but it didn’t seem to faze her. Another is the ubiquitous use of electronics even in group situations. Once, I observed a teenage couple sitting together. One was texting on a cell phone while the other was zoned out listening to an IPOD. Walking in town this summer, I observed a group of three college students. One was talking on a cell phone, one was texting on a smart phone, and one was listening to an IPOD. Another group of three people observed on the same walk, similar scene. Electronics also cater to lazy behavior. In an office setting, I have observed two colleagues emailing one another. They happened to be one office apart! I’m no better. Once, rather than get up and go upstairs to tell my daughter something, I sent her a chat message.
I speculate whether or not in certain instances these devices interfere with, rather than facilitate communications. We gain instantaneous, ubiquitous communications at the expense of these communications being impersonal. So, what is lost when electronic communications replaces relationship building face-to-face communications? A widely cited study conducted in the 1970s stated that word content comprises only 7% of communications. 38% is attributed to vocal inflection, with the remaining 55% body language. [1] This places severe limitations on written communications, whether they be email, text messages, or instant messages. Even phone calls convey less than half of the overall message.
I’m sure that everyone in the business world has witnessed or experienced a chain of emails that spiraled out of control from a seemingly benign starting point. Unfortunately, human nature often reads the worst intention of the writer in an email, occasionally leading to a damaging “email war” that is often highly visible to other people. And they are so simply prevented. A quick face-to-face meeting or phone call after the first misconstrued email would likely prevent an embarrassing and potentially damaging email exchange.
A common cost savings strategy for businesses is to use video conferencing or audio conferencing in place of face-to-face meetings. Thousands of dollars in travel costs are saved as well as valuable working time spent traveling. Video conferencing does, however, have its costs. My personal experience with video calls: often there are technical difficulties which interfere with the meeting. Also, the video quality tends to be poor enough that the face-to-face interaction is essentially lost, converting them into audio calls. Audio calls are often challenging to manage due to the lack of face-to-face contact. In face-to-face meetings, it is apparent by body language and often felt by all participants in the room who should have the next say. This is not possible in video and audio calls. It is often not clear who should have the floor next, leading to people talking over one another and long pauses in the conversation. Finally participants who are quiet and shy are not easily brought into the conversation in video and audio calls, risking the loss of their valuable input.
There are two other consequences of ubiquitous communications. The first is information overload. Between blogs, social media, email, and web notifications, it is easy to have more information coming in than we can rationally process. The exponential growth of spam messages forces people to spend large chunks of time deleting these messages despite the best spam filters. The second is 24-7 connectivity. Today’s children have constant access to and often are in constant contact with their friends. Unless they are careful and have parental supervision, these communications often rob them of sleep, homework, and family quality time. Adults have the same issues. In addition to being in constant contact with friends and family, it is easy to maintain communications with the office on a smart phone. So rather than getting revitalizing down-time, many people continue to work on vacation and in the evening hours. Lost again is critical face-to-face time, this time with family and friends.
Today’s electronic conveniences have made revolutionary, positive changes to today’s society. That being said, we have to be careful to mind the drawbacks. We have to be especially careful not to use electronic communications to replace meaningful face-to-face communications, especially where face-to-face interaction is easily available. That way, the entire intent including the emotional side of communication is not missed. Even in today’s fast paced world, we need to take the time to keep our relationships personal, for humans are a social species and constructive personal interactions enrich our lives as well as further the development of humanity.
[1]. Mehrabian, Albert (1971). Silent Messages (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
No comments:
Post a Comment