Digital vs Snail
Long gone are the days when…
The complexity of this wonderful, digital, social media world has made it easier and at the same time more difficult and time consuming to connect with someone else. Digital vs Snail – it’s a new world!
Long gone are the days when there were only two basic means of non-face-to-face communications to contend with — snail mail and telephone. How simple it was to know that a phone call or a letter enabled people to communicate. And that face-to-face was the third option.
Today, we are faced with numerous electronic communications choices
There’s e-mail, text messaging, smart phone, LinkedIn, Facebook, Skype and read my Tweets. It is coming to a point where I must keep a diary of which is the best way to successfully “connect” with the people I know. I now hope there will be an app to do that.
There are those who only communicate through LinkedIn or Facebook. Then there is the Y generation who text message. Growing numbers of the X and Y generation don’t respond to voicemail or email. Nor do they put their street addresses on business cards. They won’t get one of my handwritten thank you notes. The latest technology to improve face to face communication has people turning to video via Skype.
Then there are the digital/social media communication excuses
“I never got your text. ” “My email was down.” ” Which text phone number or email address did you use? ” “It must have been caught in my spam filter. ” “When did you leave a voicemail – I never got one from you?” “What number did you call?”
We are flooded with messages through a maze of media that too often fail to reach their target. We are spending way too much time accessing various digital/social media choices instead of accomplishing professional objectives and enjoying life.
I know we can’t go back
Yet I think about how wonderful and simple it was to know that once a day, six days a week, at about the same time every day snail mail arrived. And hearing someone’s voice and the phone was almost as good as being face-to-face.
The best way to reach me for a response is by telephone.
Larry
As a coach, trainer and consultant, Larry Blumsack partners with people and organizations on the move and those already there to accelerate their communication, presentation and speaking skills to be on par with their ambition. Through one-on-one coaching and group training Larry helps leaders and aspiring leaders elevate their presence and communication skills to influence more people, sell more products-services-ideas and inspire others more successfully than they ever imagined.
Larry is the bestselling author of Face-to-Face is The Ultimate Social Media and founder of Zoka Institute and Zoka Training®. Zoka Training® — Mind/Voice/Body/Mindfulness in sync — is the result of Larry’s 45 years as a coach, acting teacher, actor, voice-over artist, theater and TV director/producer, radio & TV commentator and show host, speaker, trainer, serial entrepreneur, and syndicated columnist. Larry was a founding member of the theater department at Northeastern University.
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