Electronic vs in-person communication

In the next couple of posts, we’ll be discussing the different ‘filters’ that messages in communication go through. By understanding the filters, you might be able to be more aware of how it will impact your communication and make attempts to make the communication better for those filters.

In this day and age, electronic communication has a growing place in our interactions with others. Unfortunately, this causes a lot of miscommunications and misinterpretation of messages.

Electronic communication has its positive notes though. It’s convenient for sending reminders and good thoughts such as compliments to another person to show that you are thinking about them. It’s also good for setting up a time for two people to get together. It’s also convenient to reach a large audience at once (blogs, social networking sites, group text messages, e-mails) with updates. However, for meaningful, interpersonal communication in which people can genuinely connect with each other… it’s rare. 

The reason that it’s rare for that to be able to happen is that most people are not good at communicating their emotions. We connect with others because they tend to sympathize or empathize with what we are feeling. When this happens, we feel like the other person understands us – a very relevant part of relationships and connections. You don’t always get to communicate those same feelings in the electronic form. At least, not always genuine emotions. Sure you have emoticons – but they don’t cover all emotions and it isn’t with the same eye-to-eye contact that you have with in person communication.

One of the main ways that miscommunication starts to happen with electronic communication is the receiver’s ability or inability to interpret nonverbal communication. We’ve all experienced this when we received a text message and apply a tone to the message. The tone can change the implication of the message and sometimes people think the other person is intending to be mean b/c they put a tone and infliction (emphasis) on certain words that the messenger did not intend. This then impacts the feedback that the receiver gives to the messenger.

If you start having a conversation through electronic media and you think the other person has been offended at something you said, it’s best to try to figure out the miscommunication in person. Even calling is better so the other person can at least hear tone and infliction. Try to be clear that you think what you intended to say did not come across correctly and you want the ability to talk with the other person in order to correct the mistake.