No doubt, social media is changing our lives. People can connect better than ever and
“wordalog” much more frequently.
“Wordalog” is a term that I am taking credit for coining. I think we are long overdue for a new word
that describes what happens in social media (via eMail, texting, chat, webpage
posting, blogging, etc.) when two or more people experience a communication
interchange. That said, it is the very
act of “Wordalogging” that has caused my sometimes emotional hate for Social
Media.
I would like to explain why.
People are using social media to interact in more ways than
ever before. The first observation about
it is that Wordalogging happens with ten times the frequency of a verbal
dialog. It happens in a back and forth,
ping-ponging way and is not even long enough in most cases to string together
an intelligent thought. It is nothing
more than sound bites. There is an
inherent danger in sound bites because, as everyone knows, they occur mostly
without context. Even the most
intelligent thought, without context, can be misconstrued and used as something
else.
Wordalogging happens sporadically. Many texts and chats happen as sound bites,
but are also interspersed and mixed with OTHER
people’s sound bites. One person will be
receiving bits and pieces of thoughts from several people at once. There is no way to actually parse the
wordalogs from so many different people, received sporadically, and reassemble
them into real dialog without mistakes and miscues.
While people have become more used to typing and writing due
to Wordalogging, the medium itself demands that messages be short, even
annotated with abbreviations. When
people Wordalog, they are often brief because they run out of gas typing to
several people at once. They also might
just be too lazy to respond appropriately.
They also will use icons and symbols that denote emotion, but use them
poorly. Last, they just might be abysmal
writers. Wordalogging is the most used
means of communication today and is actually increasing at a very rapid
pace. It is also the most inefficient and ineffective means of communication, which
makes it very dangerous.
Wordalogging also severely lacks one of the most crucial
elements of human interaction, tone and intent.
Even the most talented writers have a difficult time writing with tones
such as sarcasm and irony. When those
words are read, the interpretation is completely left to the reader. You also can’t understand intent. Words meant as guidance are very easily
confused and misinterpreted as judgement.
It all depends on the ego of the person reading it and the way something
was written. The only way to discern
tone and intent is with a face to face interaction. You can read things on a human face like
sarcasm when something is said in a pointed way, but with a smirk. You can understand empathy when someone
offers hard advice, but with a sad look on their face. None of this is visible in Wordalogging. It can be the cause in damaging many
relationships.
Wordalogging also creates an artificially protected space
for someone to merely spout an opinion.
Confrontation of issues in a live public forum, face to face with real
people, and in the swarm of true passion cannot be replicated in
Wordalogging. It is very easy for
someone in Social Media to jump in, spout a point, insult a presenter, create
an unsubstantiated rumor, and suddenly, without accountability, disappear. Things that would never be said in a face to
face confrontation just seem to fly all around the Social Media landscape. In a face to face confrontation, you cannot
simply disappear by logging off. When
people of passion are verbally communicating, you better be able to thrust and
parry with your words while standing in an emotional hurricane. You don’t have the luxury of shouting a few
words and fleeing…you won’t be heard.
Wordalogging has created a safe haven for cowards who would never be
caught dead voicing those same thoughts face to face.
Wordalogging has created volumes of noise in our communication. Everyone can put in their opinion, so they
do. You can’t possibly get to the root
of any issue with all of the electronic noise that is being created. It is near impossible to sort out valid
points from blathering. You also can’t
find the valid points because they were so inefficiently communicated. You can’t discern the point because you have
no context due to brevity and cannot understand tone due to the medium. So, in the name of efficiency, hour upon hour
is lost in social interaction and decision making simply due to having to sort
out the noise.
True communication requires an understanding of the point,
an interpretation of perspective based on motive and intent, and the ability to
demonstrate interest in the subject matter.
None of this can be done when you are Wordalogging.
What does this have to do with P90X? P90X is about getting all the bad things out
of your system.
Curiously, that is what
happens when I feel the need to rant!
Now that’s funny.
See you tomorrow.
