Post #10. The ways to communicate in modern world.

Hello everybody,

As I might have told you previously, I spend some of my time for my hobby - internet radio streaming. I joined some enthusiasts which keep the radio up, and do some broadcasting there, on very different topics with very different music at the background.  Just a few days ago, I and my colleague were doing a broadcast on a few topics. Mainly they were about modern Internet problems. Also, we slightly touched the topic of contemporary communication. We had a really great discussion over it, and I have decided to think more about it and to write here. So, I am going to tell you about the different ways of communication: messaging, talking over the phone and communication in the real life; their pros and cons in my opinion. 

The first method I want to talk about is everything connected with messaging. I mean all such ways here: chatting, e-mailing, social networking and so on and so forth. It was the first method to communicate over the Internet: it appeared in 1969, when the first two computers were connected together. Since then the amount of text messaging has dramatically grown. Almost every new Internet user set up an e-mail account firstly. Moreover, the vast part in c corporate communication is done through the mail. For instance, in NES, mail is the main way to communicate in the time, when there are no lessons; all more or less important messages are distributed through the mail system. Personally, I also use that way of communication in my everyday social life: almost all the social networks are based on text conversations. The minor part of text messages are SMS messages which really help to quickly share short news and important announcements between your friends and mates. Of course, such way of the communication has its pluses and minuses. In my view, the main benefits of such a communication are:

• It really the costless method. Writing messages is quick; you can write it everywhere, not worrying about the environment around you. For example, you can quickly respond to some news, even sitting on the very important meeting.
• When you are chatting, you have more time to think about what you write. In conversation, you have to think quickly, not to create silence. However, if you get a message, you can read it and respond after five or ten minutes, when you will be confident in what you are saying.
•  Messaging in contemporary world enables some additional interactivity. What do I mean: only during the chatting or mailing you can attach document, music, image or video to your message. Imagine doing it in the conversation – it is just impossible.

Of course, the messaging has some minuses, which makes it not the best way to communicate in my opinion:

•   Messaging mainly ignores direct usage of five senses: you can’t see, hear, taste. Smell or feel your partner. Instead of the, you see the messages and images, hear the music. That often creates a gap in the understanding between two persons.
•  The second minus flows from the first: messaging could not provide you with the full emotional range. That, unfortunately, leads to lies in the conversation: you can persuade your partner that you are smiling by sending him an appropriate emoticon; however, you may cry at the same time. It makes discussions about some personal problems through messaging dishonest and insufficient.

The second method I would like to discuss is voice communication. Mainly, today it is subdivided in two ways: over phone and over VOIP technologies as Skype and other programs which allows its users to hear themselves. Voice communication over phone appeared in quite distant past, when Bell invented his telephone and gained popularity after the Second World War. VOIP communication is not so old: it appeared only ten years ago, when average Internet connection speed reached the needed level. As a result, phone communication is more widespread: it is used in both corporate and daily life, while VOIP is mainly used for entertainment and only sometimes – in corporate needs. But I want to notice that VOIP has many benefits over usual phone, and it is predicted to start dominating in the nearest future. Like the text messages, voice communication has its pluses and minuses. Let me start from benefits:

•  The voice itself. Such way of communication directly provides access to the voice of your partner, what makes communication more vitalized, active and effective in disputing over something. Also, if we talk about VOIP, second sense opens to us: you can even see your partner, if he has a camera installed. That opportunity is often used by the relatives who live in a distant city and do not see each other for ages.
• Unlike the text messages, you can’t wait with the response for ages. It may seem the minus, but it is also a benefit, if applied to your partner. It is hard to create quick lies, so in voice communication the chance that your partner will be honest is much higher than in messaging.
• Transactional costs during the voice communication are still quite low. If you want to talk, you do not have to go anywhere in the most of cases, you just need to take out your phone or computer and make a call. It is quite simple – thus, it is a great benefit.

I have very strange attitude to phone calls: on the one hand, they have a lot benefits. On the other hand, I personally do not like it. Mainly it is because it’s minuses; partly because I just do not like to talk a lot. So, turning to the disadvantages, I can outline some of them:

• Despite the low transactional costs, you can’t make phone calls sometimes. For instance, again, on very important meeting, it would not be nice if you disturb everyone with speaking. The same situation appears in the vast part of public places: cinemas, libraries, etc, where silence is the norm.
• The second minus about phone communication is availability of your partner. If you are writing a text message to him, you can always wait for him to come and respond; however, if you phone him, you expect him to answer in roughly thirty seconds. Nevertheless, often some situations exist when your partner is not able to answer: for instance, if it is late at night or your partner just does not have a physical possibility to answer. That can lead to quite stupid situations, such as the following: you are waiting for some person, but you have not decided where to meet. Of course, you will try to phone him, but if his phone is off, you won’t find each other with high chances.
• Still, the senses that are other from the two I listed in the first point. You can’t feel your partner, can’t feel his smell and see his or her eyes, because even the best cameras can’t transfer accurate eyes motion, which is very important for me, for instance.

The third and the last method of communication in contemporary world I wanted to tell about is real life communication.  Today it is often called IRL, what means “in real life” and the word “communicated” is omitted. That way existed since the humanity appeared and mainly does not require any specific technical gadgets like phones or computers to be used. However, during the last few decades the role and amount of IRL communication has significantly decreased. Nevertheless it does not make such a way undervalued and unimportant for the major part of society – and for me personally too. Of course, I do not say that in real life communication does not have its minuses, but its pluses are much bigger in my opinion. Here are some of these advantages:

•  In real life communication uses all the five senses, and even the “sixth” sense. When you meet the person, you can clearly see his mimics, how he or she moves or reacts to your words. You also build some opinion relative to that person based on how he smells or sounds. You can also take his or her hand or do something similar to that, to see reaction of your partner.
• Therefore, in real life communication transfers the full emotional range between the persons, because the maximum possibilities are used. It is the hardest way to lie: to lie with your eyes. Actually, I think that eyes always lie, it is just impossible to hide something with them. However, I might be mistaken, and you could say that it is possible to lie with the eyes – I won’t argue, because I am not a psychologist.
• The last major plus of the “in real life” communication is that you are completely not dependent on technical resources needed for other types of communication.  You can come and see somebody even in case all the electricity on the planet goes off.

I do not see any major minuses in real life communication; however, I have put some of them here, to make my discussion disputable and argumentative:

• First of all, the transactional costs are sometimes extremely high. For instance, it is much easier to phone or write to a person who lives on the other side of the world rather than spending loads of money on the way to him, especially if your goal is just to have thirty minutes chat about nothing.
• Likewise voice communication, your partner is not always able to meet. I have a really good friend who lives in Moscow region, not so far from Moscow. However, we can meet only once a week; if we try to meet more, we won’t just literally have time on other things.
• The last disadvantage I would like to mention is that it is impossible to exit the conversation without problems. If you are chatting – you can go offline; if you are talking over the phone – you can just hang up the phone. Unlike these situations, if you are sitting and talking in the café it would be strange if you go away without a reason. It would definitely result in the deterioration in the relationships with the people you was talking with.

I think it is time to conclude everything and say a few words about the methods I did not mention.  Of course, there are some related methods such as writing paper letters and telegraph, but they are not used today and replaced with some modern ones. So, in conclusion, I would like to say that we should use all the ways I outlined but we should not forget about the importance and relevance of the third way – real life communication. It remained the most valuable for me throughout the years and I hope the same is happening to you.

P.S. I am sorry about the size of today’s post. I just had a lot of free time, and the topic was really interesting for me J