There’s a bit of an anti-social media buzz around at the moment – apparently we’re not communicating properly if we’re not doing it in person, via phone, or by letter. There’s even a fairly popular video going around Facebook moaning about how we don’t communicate properly which I unfortunately cannot find a link to right now.
But what’s so bad about using technology to communicate?
Let’s get a few things settled to begin with :-
- Letters are just 19th century emails.
- Telegrams are just 19th century texts or instant messages.
- Phone calls are just 19th century (stretching a point here) voice chats.
Just because a technology is old doesn’t make it right; just because a technology is old doesn’t make it wrong.
There’s no arguing with the fact that communicating in the flesh as it were, is a much more complete form of communication than anything else. Take moving into a new place for example, someone who helps you move in by helping move the furniture is going to get a much better grasp of what your new home is like than someone who just sees a few snaps that you’ve tweeted.
But not everyone can be there helping you move in :-
- They could be stuck at work and unable to take the day off.
- They could be living on the other side of the planet – are you going to pay their travel costs?
- They could be physically limited and unable to handle the moving furniture bit.
But tweet a pic, and they’ll be able to share some part of the experience.
Now let’s assume you’re obsessed with physical keyboards (or any other unusual interest). Do the people around you share your obsession? Or do you have to visit specialist forums/groups/etc. to communicate with your fellow enthusiasts?
And not everyone finds it easy to communicate in a physical context :-
- People who are house-bound find it difficult to make new physical acquaintances – should they stick a sign outside their front door saying “Lonely person fancies a chat.”, and would you respond to that?
- There’s a whole bunch of “differently normal” people (specifically those with ASD) who may find physical communication impossible, difficult, or just rather boring who will gain a great deal more by communicating electronically.
- Most of us have old acquaintances that we’re too busy to communicate “fully” with, but we’re definitely interested to see that they’re still alive and getting up to fun stuff.
Using technology enhances our communication options. We can choose to use those options, or not. Just as we can choose to emphasise physical presence or not.