The Digital Divide
At the risk of dating myself or appearing completely out of touch, I was thinking there could be some weaknesses in the brave new (well not so new) world of digital communication. This will not be the last time I write on this subject, but it is the first time. It is also part of the series I am developing on sales, but this first writing will be slightly broader and not focused on improving sales.
I certainly appear somewhat hypocritical as I am writing a blog that will only be disseminated via the digital world. I do not view digital as non-essential, far from it, as the sophistication of digital communication continues to grow it is an essential form of communication. However, it is only one of many tools that one can use when communicating with others. The basic weakness of digital communication is the inability to properly express your intent or feelings. Emojis may help your reader understand the emotion behind your message, just in case they don’t appreciate your sarcastic wit and humor. Digital allows for interpretation on the part of the reader which may not be the intended interpretation of the writer. Digital messages allow me to read into it the emotion I am feeling or the intent I perceive you to be implying. The more we communicate digitally the more we distance ourselves from the true meaning of our feelings and intent..
Aside from the constant misunderstanding of the intent of the message, it is the pure laziness of hiding behind a text instead of communicating directly. I was reminded recently of the great enthusiasm that can be experienced in person rather than through digital communication.
The other day a friend of mine invited me to her new workspace. She is a close friend of my girlfriend so I can call her a friend, but it is guilt by association. At any rate, we drove into town and we went to see Joanna’s new shop. Joanna is a furniture maker and an upholsterer. I know what you are thinking how hard can that be really?
Really hard----this is beyond difficult and still must be done by hand. Think about all of those decorative brads in your leather chair and how perfectly they are spaced. One mistake and you get to do it all over again – I would say super difficult-- I digress. The point of all of this is she had finally separated herself from being the jobber to being the owner. By the way, her work is incredible; seriously, this is a person you need for all of your furniture work —- again I digress. The point (OMG aren’t you tired yet) is when I walked into her “new” shop her enthusiasm was infectious. She could hardly wait to show us everything and what was going everywhere and how it would look and what was changing and what and what. And what was amazing is how excited and full of life and potential success she exuded. She could have sent me an email announcing her new shop and her expanded business and I would have gone on to the next email. But going there, that was an experience that I could relate to and, well, write about because it meant something. Meant something to her and me. We talked about business and managing success and how important it was to manage your risk not your success. She could never have communicated this depth of excitement in an email.
I am under no illusion that we are not going back to an analog world. I would like to point out the value of a blended style of communication. I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. It’s a very neutral space. It protects me and you from the emotions coming back because the email or text has no emotion other than the emotion we read into it; which, as I have discussed, is not without its problems. My computer, phone, iPad or whatever mechanical device is in my hand or fingers protect me and you. Let’s look at an example.
Applying for a job: You send your resume via email. Three things can happen: 1) it is deleted by the recipient 2) It is read and then deleted 3) it is read, and you receive a request for more information. On the senders’ side, he/she sends the resume via email and thinks that their job is done. I asked my son how his job applications were coming, and he said they were great as he had sent his resume via email to the companies he cared about. Job done!! NOT SO FAST I suggested that he might want to consider the three things that could happen to his resume and he got the point that perhaps his job was not done. Oh, I hear you, “but that is how you have to apply, they don’t let you talk to anyone.”
Unfortunately, both the job seeker and the job looker have managed to isolate themselves from the human process of finding another human that might benefit the company. Instead, we made the application process more streamlined which is another word for more isolated from human interaction. There is a story that went around the firm I worked for many years. The firm was trying to establish a relationship with a large company from Australia. The banker in charge could not get a meeting. He discovered that the CEO flew back and forth on the same flight every month. The banker managed to purchase a ticket on that flight and managed to sit next to the CEO he was trying to start a relationship with. By the time the 16-hour flight concluded he had managed to secure a meeting. Whether true or not that is not the point, if you want to get noticed there will be obstacles that are in place that make it difficult. Since you want what they have, it is incumbent upon you to find a way to be noticed. Digital communication puts you in the exact spot that your competitors are and therefore makes you, if not irrelevant, certainly average or indistinguishable from your competitors. Analog communication allows you the opportunity to be noticed in a different and hopefully more positive fashion.
A friend of mine’s daughter asked me to write a recommendation for her. It was an introduction to the firm. What I remember most about the experience was not whether she was successful in getting the internship, it was the handwritten letter thanking me for providing the introduction. I still have the letter and I still hear from her and her progress at the company. I keep all the letters I receive. It is not that burdensome because I don’t receive that many. Handwritten communication is noticed because, so few people send them. Too lazy, bad handwriting, too shy whatever it is – get over it. There is something intimate about a handwritten note, letter or card. It is an extension of the person uninterrupted by an electronic wall. I am not discounting the efficiency of the digital world nor the convenience of sending an electronic message. Digital does not require an emotional commitment. You don’t have to hear the disappointment in delivering a negative outcome, likewise, you cannot fully experience the elation of the positive result. You miss the joy of yes and the harshness of no. The written word softens the blow or expands the joy. The voice or written word reveals the actual feeling behind the message. The sympathy, sadness, joy, and love are amplified when written by hand or spoken. You just cannot escape the hardness of the electronic message as efficiently as it might be. Again, I am not suggesting we go back, as that ship has sailed. However, I am suggesting that analog be given a larger space in your communicative world. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Misspell a word, let someone see your sloppy handwriting or maybe your beautiful handwriting. Analog is the human experience digital is the robot, the coldness of the machine. Pick up the phone or write a little note to someone you care about or someone you have lost touch with. I still have the cards and notes that I have received. I keep the letters my father wrote. I saved the notes my sisters wrote while they were discovering life through school and travel. These notes and letters are full of emotion and human interaction. My emails, texts and other electronic messages? --- Press Delete ----