How much is social networking destorying our conversational skills? I wonder at it sometimes... Whether it's email or facebook or texting or twitter... or whatever... We have become so used to just whipping off some textual e-thing... and we call that communication... Leading workshops, as I do, I'm noticing that we are being called to enter into conversations with people... with real, live people... And we aren't all that good at it. We lack the skills to carry on an intimate, deep, intense conversation. In facct, we are often afraid of it... We are afraid to enter into a conversation with a participant because we're never sure where it will go... We're not quite sure we'll have the "right answer"... We're never quite sure that we won't have to admit that we don't know the answer...
I've been thinking that we use email far too much as a communication tool... when really it's primary role is to transmit information... Information is not communication... Information is not conversation... Email exchanges are not conversation... They are essentially broadcasting... We go "blah" and then they go "blah"... and that's about it... We lose the nuances of conversation... We lose the meaning in the tone of voice, we lose the meaning in the pauses... we lose the opportunity to complete things as they show up in the conversation. We lose the opportunity to clear up misunderstandings as they arise... We think we are communicating with email... and really, we are increasing the communication gap... We are better at transmitting information... we are worse at entering into, and stayin in, a conversation...
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