Being a person who is social in 2012 – one who regularly communicates with a wide variety of people in a wide array of places – is fascinating. In particular, our use of texting, instant messaging, facebooking, tweeting and emailing is a world apart from the regular old phone call that was the standard just twenty years ago. The biggest harm, though, is what little context these mediums provide.
That’s not to say that advances in technology always dull the way we communicate. Videochatting1 and photo sharing sometimes provide a feeling that is better than what we experience in person. Those examples seem to be exceptions to the rule, though.
Dave Grohl, the former Nirvana drummer and current frontman of Foo Fighters, recently (and likely inadvertantly) touched on a similar topic in the follow up to his Grammy acceptance speech. He discusses what it’s like to be a real musician, one who’s voice and instrument are untouched by auto-tune and the like. He writes:
“The ‘human element’. That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became ‘bad’ things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily ‘fixed’. The end result? [In] my humble opinion…..a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.”
Grohl isn’t talking about communicating, but he might as well be.2 There are some things that get lost in a text message. No amount of exclamation points can properly capture the excitement in someone’s voice when they call their parents to tell them they are getting married. No caps lock can shout loud enough or show the redness of someone’s face when they are angry. As much as we may hate conflict, getting yelled at face-to-face is more effective for both parties than getting berated with a testy email.
During the spring of my freshman year of college, I received notification from the University of Illinois that my transfer application had been accepted. I immediately called my dad and told him the news. He disagreed with my decision to transfer schools, but he could hear how excited I was and how happy I seemed, for the first time in a long time. He could tell that it was something I needed to do just by hearing the sound of my voice. That’s not something that ones and zeroes will be able to mimic anytime soon. If nothing else, this serves as a reminder to myself that from time to time technology is best left in my pocket. It’s important every now and then to put down the phone, walk away from the computer and look a person straight in the face.
- At the time of this writing, every single person on Apple’s Facetime page is smiling. That is not by accident. ↵
- The irony of his post being written on Facebook is not lost on me. ↵