Stepping into the new era, human beings gradually have different types of communication. Letter can be the oldest one, and we also own telegram, telephone, internet, and the list will go on. Seeing that face to face communication is becoming rare among people, making acquaintances be stranger, some people may think that we should be back to the nature, and do more face to face communication. Isn’t it really the best for people’s communication? My answer is absolutely unanimous with it.
Human beings are all emotional animals. Through the face to face communication, people can exchange their feelings, which can hardly achieved by the cool computer. Letters and telephone may deliver our sentiment as well, however, its ability is limited because it can only be words. On the contrary, people are able to use some body languages when they’re face to face. Take lovers for example, surely they could write some love letters and make a long call to say how much they love each other. But, can it be compared with the kisses and the sweet hugs? Exactly no!
Sometimes we would find that embarrassed when misunderstanding others’ words from sending the mobile phone message or those from the MSN. One of the reasons is that sentences can be spoken through different tones. Only a simple ‘OK’ will express distinctive emotions. When you speak in a certain voice, you may be happy to agree with someone’s idea; When you speak it lowly, chances are that you feel unwilling and depress. We can find that language is of great interest, for it could be accompanied with different collocation as well as be spoken in different tones expressing ideas that far apart.
We often hear some stories about the lonely parents who have outstanding sons and daughters, merely be at home. Letters or phone calls are good, how about the face to face communication? Be back home one or more times, have some more chat with our parents, that may be the best presents they need.
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI too, am in full agreement that we should go back to more face-to-face communication. With technology on the rise, there are more means of communication happening all the time. I feel as if face-to-face communication is going into a stage of heavy decline, and we are beginning to value it less.
Face-to-face communication eliminates the uncertainty of tone, context and emotion. See the following “text message” on the word “ok”:
(1) OKAY!
(2) Okay….
(3) Ok.
I can confidently say, that all of us may have a different meaning or have a different context for the same word. Message (1) can seem like someone is yelling in a text by typing in capitol letters, (2) seems like someone is uncertain, upset or annoyed, and (3) can seem very serious. However, for all we know, others could interpret all those texts as being happy. The point is, the meaning of a message can become less valuable if there is so much uncertainty about the message itself. Human interaction is so valuable because there is a direct response all the time, uncertainty is eliminated, and you can pick up on body language and facial expression on someone’s is feelings, rather than trying to interpret it through a text.
People say its just “easier” and less time consuming to text someone rather than meeting with him or her face-to-face. However is the easement worth giving up your own skills and abilities to socially interact with other people?
Other than companies relying mainly on a 1800 Number, personal or face to face communication should always be prioritized.
ReplyDelete