I read an interesting book last night that prompted me to make some changes to break out of my Social Cocoon. In that post, I hypothesized that fear is partially responsible for the popularity of digital communication over verbal (e.g. the fear of interrupting, the fear of a Freudian slip, or the fear of seeming vapid or intrusive). So, on recommendation that I face a fear per day, I decided to cut back heavily on my text message conversations in favor of the verbal.
Apart from the facing of fear, there is a practical reason for favoring verbal to textual. It is more efficient to share information in a five-minute conversation than in a three-hour exchange of sporadic texts with character limits. It is additionally a more effective cerebral exercise to express oneself clearly and concisely without the luxury of a Delete button. It is thirdly a more effective means of gauging a person's emotional subtext and meaning.
Practicality aside, I spent 90% of my social life online in high school and held more than half of my conversations over text throughout college. As a result of these habits, I began to feel a profound disconnect from people, especially on the emotional level. Texts are not emotional, no matter how many CAPITALIZED LETTERS and exclamation marks one can add. At my low point I decided I had become too robotic to fit in with the human race, and I was miserable. This was less than a year ago.
I don't think it will be easy to make this switch. Phone and face-to-face conversations take time, which is a scarce and precious commodity, especially in Los Angeles. Still, I am convinced that the return to humanity from the robotic will be worth the time and effort.
Apart from the facing of fear, there is a practical reason for favoring verbal to textual. It is more efficient to share information in a five-minute conversation than in a three-hour exchange of sporadic texts with character limits. It is additionally a more effective cerebral exercise to express oneself clearly and concisely without the luxury of a Delete button. It is thirdly a more effective means of gauging a person's emotional subtext and meaning.
Practicality aside, I spent 90% of my social life online in high school and held more than half of my conversations over text throughout college. As a result of these habits, I began to feel a profound disconnect from people, especially on the emotional level. Texts are not emotional, no matter how many CAPITALIZED LETTERS and exclamation marks one can add. At my low point I decided I had become too robotic to fit in with the human race, and I was miserable. This was less than a year ago.
I don't think it will be easy to make this switch. Phone and face-to-face conversations take time, which is a scarce and precious commodity, especially in Los Angeles. Still, I am convinced that the return to humanity from the robotic will be worth the time and effort.
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