Who's teaching communication?

You want to know what kind of communicator you are (or were) on any given day? Just look at your phone!

As an English teacher, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked about, or I talked about, how technology was ruining interpersonal communication in today's world, I'd have had to claim supplemental income on my taxes this year. I don't disagree...a lot of technology today does inhibit people's ability to communicate effectively in person and in writing.

So when I came across this article today about how "my phone teaches me to be a better conversationalist" I initially braced myself for a Millenial's defensive testimony as to why technology was not ruining the current generation. However, upon reading the story, I found something unexpectedly contemplative. The basic premise is that, because text messages allow you to visualize a conversation, you can actually see and analyze the dynamics of communication...(Who's talking more? Has the conversation bee monopolized by one person? Do the party's show equal interest in what's being discussed based on volume of conversational language?) These are kind of language nerdy questions to ask and linguistic statistics to ponder. And because the article came with infographics, I can show you my point.

These differences aren't necessarily a bad thing...they just signal different types of conversations. For example, if something terrible happens at work, I might send J Word a long string of texts because I'm upset. He might only respond with one...maybe a question about something I said...to which I respond with three more texts. Some might say I'm monopolizing the conversation because I'm doing all the talking, but contextually, it makes sense because I'm telling a story. We can see physically see that context play out in the volume of text sent in a way that conversing face to face doesn't show us.

If I ask J Word how his day is going, and he responds with a similar question, to which I respond and a conversation back and forth continues, that signifies a different kind of conversational context.

So what does this all have to do with interpersonal communication? Well...very little actually...unless you're willing to take the awareness of different conversational modes and apply it to face to face communication. As the author says:

"I’ve found that visualizing our conversations this way helps me to identify what mode we’re in at any given moment, and what role I could play to best serve our communication needs - listener, talker, one-who-leaves-her-alone."

It's interesting...at least if you're an English nerd! I won't apologize for being one. 

Happy Trails,