In the beginning..
Today, I get a lot of flak from my family and people I know, for being on my phone for too long. I tried to keep it in check but realised that there was a limit to how much I could avoid using it. Then again, I wondered, what was wrong in using the phone? I wasn’t checking porn or any other undesirable content, but I was distracting myself when others were chatting with me, this was not good.
I chatted with friends, mainly those who I could not meet more often, chatted on official issues, got the cricket score, a few pieces of news items and listened to music and took photographs. I forward things to others. I do not disturb my staff or anyone at work post 7 pm or on holidays except if I felt it was important. I am in a few personal groups of family and friends where we discuss family matters, cricket, sport and debate on politics. We share articles and pictures along with videos.
So, I thought this matter through and had a view that I wanted to share with you all.
My View – The start of communication
To put things simply, communication in various forms started from the early periods of humankind. While I will not go into scientific explanations I believe that communications started with grunts and sounds, to signs symbols and slowly moved to the earliest form of language. Language, both with a script and without one, has also evolved over the centuries.
I am reading a Book by Shyam Saran, How China Sees India and The World and it was only now that I got to know that the Chinese ‘script’ uses words rather than alphabets. So, an educated person knows about 3000 words and a very learned person, around 5000 words of the Chinese language.
My own original tongue, Swahili, has no script of it’s own and uses the Latin script. Over the years most languages have changed, adapted and merged among others. It is possible that with communication came the styles and forms of communication. Politeness, Anger, Authority, Subtlety and many such forms.
Also, we had communication in person, through sounds, smoke signals, the written letter, codes and what not. As time went by the code took on another avatar and we started getting into communication by electronic media.
Today..
Today, we communicate mainly, in what I refer to as Cyberspace. Instant messaging through SMS, Text messages such as WhatsApp and then various forms of Social Media. There is a lot out there today. The cyber space communication is mind boggling, to say the least. However, we have ways to enumerate the quantum of communication as every piece of communication leaves behind a foot print, in some form or the other.
Unlike communication in cyber space, communicating through speech and signs or the written letters sent through the postal services is impossible to enumerate. I am pretty certain that, if one could analyse this, one would find that the quantum of such communication has come down dramatically. I also feel that the loss in such forms of communication is far less than the quantum of communication in cyberspace. So, effectively we are communicating a lot more.
I am not going to get into whether excess communication in cyber space is good or bad. Like anything in life, too much of anything is not good. What is too much is left to each one of us to determine. Sadly, I believe reading of printed books has taken a bit of a beating. However, those who love reading, do it on a Kindle or online also. So, statistics on whether book reading per se has come down, is difficult to determine.
We are in a world today where the desire to know and the be the first to know is very important. I heard my grand daughter use the term FOMO ( Fear Of Missing Out). Almost all the information we want and possibly do not need is out there in Cyberspace.
My point of this Blog
I feel, as time passes by, we will communicate with those we love or like, through cyberspace. For example, my parents never saw or heard from their children for days, weeks, months and years on end as they were living elsewhere. I never saw my eldest sibling for seven years. Just a few letters sent by post was all we had. However, today, that has changed completely. We can see, talk, listen and advise, get angry and love those who live thousands of kilometres away, instantly. Many also share intimate communication which they would have found impossible to say face to face.
So, on the positive side, I believe that communication through and in cyberspace is now the way we communicate with each other, most of the time. Here comes my point :
Many of us forward posts to friends, families and acquaintances every day. We greet, are greeted. We may not desire communication from many either. Being in a group we are often obliged to read or hear from those we do not care about. However, I feel, communication through cyberspace is now the norm and is an accepted form of communication. Therefore, just as we had rules of etiquette in earlier forms of communication, we must observe this in cyberspace communication too.
I used an analogy with a friend, who is not very keen on forwards and thinks they are not means of communication. I said, if we were in an earlier era, I would possibly have found a good article in a magazine and shared the magazine with a friend, I created scrap books where friends could also share what I read and wrote. I only share what I feel the receiver likes. I do NOT share with all my contacts. Therefore, Forwards are also means of communicating.
When I share a cricket video or a comedy bit with someone I believe that person will enjoy it. It is like when we shared books while growing up. We had to wait our turn there but in this case it is instant sharing. If a friend liked western fictional novels, we shared books by Louis L ‘Amour or some such author’s books. Today, we will share such stuff through cyber communication.
If, during our school days, we were all going somewhere together or enjoying a chat and someone in our group took on another person, we tried to quell the fire by intervening. Isn’t that similar to what happens in a group where some people cyber bully others? However, rarely do people seem to intervene – mainly because we feel these things should be ignored. Also, since we have not seen it but just read, we feel there is no damage done. We can just switch off. Is that what we would do if the bully did this physically in our presence?
Our minds are the same but our mode of communication has changed drastically. Some do not want the sender to know that they have read their message, some have no issue. Some ignore messages – it is like telling the sender, hey, I am either too busy now or really do not want to communicate with you.
On Social Media many put up a show of happiness, joy and various such emotions. In reality, the picture after the smiling hugging picture was taken, could not be very pleasant. This is what we also do physically. We portray a different picture to the world.
Many are called ‘keyboard warriors’, they can abuse, fight etc. online but face to face, they do not have the same ability to challenge. This is like those who speak behind our backs when we are not around. Many write great things about people in groups – be careful, there is a favour required some tile soon.
Emoji’s are what we did when we were young by making the peace sign ( the first sign I saw that was worn around the neck of a family member) in metal. Love was shown through hearts or ‘xxxxx’ in the western world. Today you show emotions through emojis.
To end, is cyber communication any less than physical communication? Isn’t it the same? I believe that we need to learn that this is the current mode of communication and those who are silent may have remained silent even in a physical meeting. Some may be bolder in cyber communication. Don’t we have to accept that this is now the main mode of communication, especially when the two persons or groups are separated by seas and continents. Why do we not accept that and give it the same sense of respect that physical communication gets? Be polite, humane, angry, insulting but remember, the receiver feels the same way that he or she would feel if the message was made through a physical conversation.
I hope I got my point across…
Happy Dussehra…
Please send your comments to the comments section below. It will help me understand your views better.
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