Mediated Communication: Connected or Disconnected? Essay

AbstractWe totally seem to live and breathe social media. direct a message and wedgeing connected is as easy as it can get. Technology is essentially transforming traditional methods and revolutionizing the bureau we communicate with one another. Today, we have to stay relevant, informed, and up-to-date on the newest dialogue channels and incorporate them into our range of daily activities. However to chassis meaningful connections between people, we select to let engineering science upraise our chat, rather than dictate it. As new communication technological advancements become available, our temptation is also to spend less time on face-to-face interactions at the risk of losing the critical context of our message.Of course, texts, e-mails and social media can dramatically impact the speed and volume of messages, but therein also lies the danger in allowing the astute aspects of dialogue and personality to fall by the wayside Face-to-face discussions are the foundation of human communication once established, it allows us to build trust, clearly judge our ideas and minimize misunderstanding. However, for many of us, face-to-face communication seems to be a dying art replaced by text messaging, e-mails, and social media. Human communication and interactions are acquire shaped by available technologies. Thus we have to ask in todays tech-savvy world, are we really connected or essentially confounded? Is social media sabotaging the art of personal communication?On a crisp Friday afternoon last October, Sharon Seline exchanged text messages with her daughter who was in college. They chatted back and forth, milliampere asking how things were going and daughter answering with positive statements followed by emoticons showing smiles, b-i-g smiles and hearts(/). Happiness. Later that night, her daughter attempted suicide.In the days that followed, it came to light that shed been holed up in her hostel room, crying and showing signs of depression a co mpletely different reality from the one that she conveyed in texts, Facebook posts and tweets . (Courtesy Forbes magazine, April2012) As human beings, our that real method of connection is through authentic communication. Studies show that only 7%of communication is based on the written or verbal word. A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal body language. Indeed, its only when we can hear a tone of voice or expect into someones eyes that were able to know when Im fine doesnt mean theyre fine at allor when Im just sad means theyre thoroughly depressed. Flooded in technology, anyone can hide behind the text, the e-mail, the Facebook post or the tweet, projecting any image they want and creating an illusion of their choice.They can be whoever they want to be and without the ability to see or feel, their audiences are none the wiser. all relevant metric shows that we are interacting at breakneck speed and frequency through social media. But are we really communicating? With 93% of our communication context stripped away, we are now attempting to forge familys and make decisions based on phrases, abbreviations, snippets, emoticons which may or may not be accurate representations of the truth. This presents an infrequent paradox. With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are more connected and potentially more disconnected than ever before. This is where social media gets dicey.Communication Barriers New Dimensions complaisant technologies have broken the barriers of space and time, enabling us to interact 24/7 with more people all over the world. The focus is now on communication quantity rather than quality and Superficiality against authenticity? But like any revolutionary concept, it has initiated a new set of barriers and threats. It is an ironic federal agency where social media has the potential to make us less social a surrogate for the real thing. For it to be a truly effective communication vehicle, communicators can a responsi bility to be genuine, accurate, and not allow it to replace human contact altogether. In the workplace, the commit of electronic communication has overtaken face-to-face and voice-to-voice communication by a wide margin. This major shift has been driven by two major forces the speed/geographic dispersion of business, and the lack of comfort with traditional interpersonal communication among a growing segment of our employee population Gen Y and Millennials. Studies show that these generations which will comprise more than 50% of the workforce by 2020 would prefer to use instant messaging or other social media than stop by and talk with someone.This new communication preference is one of thegenerational gaps plaguing organizations as employers tense to manage a new set of expectations and norms in their younger employees. The majority of the worlds largest businesses are using social media with little thought as to how it can contribute to the organizations overall strategy and t hat its use is destroying the integrity of face-to-face conversations and replacing it with hidden conversations. This is arguably true to some period with many companies confused as to the role it should play inside the corporate framework. Further, because most business communication is now done via e-mails, texts, instant messaging, intranets, blogs, websites and other technology enabled media, minus body language, the potential for misinterpretation is growing.Rushed and stressed, people often do not take the time to consider the nuances of their writing. Conflicts explode over a tone of an e-mail, or that all-important cc list. When someone writes a text in all capital letters, does it mean they are shouting? Are one- or two-word responses a sign that the person doesnt want to engage? On the flip side, does a smiley face or an abbreviated acknowledgement of agreement really mean they are all set and aligned? Unfortunately conclusions are drawn on frighteningly little informati on.Getting historicalIn this fit out world when we have only abridged words and faceless chats instead of voice, face and body expression how then do we communicate effectively and build more authentic relationships? Leaders must consider the impact on business relationships and the ability to effectively collaborate, build trust, and create employee bout and loyalty. Susan Tardanico, leadership and communications executive coach, consultant and professional speaker and CEO of the Authentic Leadership Alliance LLC suggests certain ways for keeping communication realSuggestions for Keeping E-Communication RealAddress your issues. If you are drawing a conclusion about experiencing a conflict based on an electronic exchange, then pick up the mobilize or have a face-to-face conversation to clear things up. Me first. Make an effort to check your own communications to ensure you arent sending an unfaithfulmessage. Take steps to put forth an accurate picture of reality. Bridging the g ap. As employees and employers, there are chances of dealing with different generations who have noticeably different communication preferences. Talk with colleagues about this aspect and ask for input on the best way to keep communication flowing through the team.Stay connected. Dont fall prey to the comfort of sitting behind closed doors and doing all your work from behind a computer screen or the hand-held device. No doubt it takes the pressure rack up many of the complexities of management, but this also disconnects us from face to face connections. Find a way to stay connected with colleagues employee relationship is one of the determining factors for level of engagement and loyalty to the organization. Beware of the disconnect. An eloquent and motivating online communication is easy to write. But if our words are not unvarying with our actions and reality, this disconnect will harm our credibility and impede our ability to work effectively. Two-way communication. Communicati on is essentially a two-way process. Just because youve fired off an e-mail or text, it doesnt mean communication has taken place. We must pay attention to the feedback to see if our message is understood and accepted.Considering that this trend is here to stay, we need to create cultures where managers, employees and stakeholders renew their efforts to get at the real messages and issues. When colleagues spend personal time we can expect better working abilities. Correlations between face-to-face relationship-building and employee engagement and loyalty are a concept that has been proven again and again over the years. This has also been excellently explored in the concept Management by paseo Around in Tom Peters groundbreaking book In Search of Excellence. As global citizens of a technologically-enabled world we must find a way to incorporate all the amazing benefits which mediated communication has to offer while ensuring that we arent losing the human touch with the most signif icant personal and professional relationships.