海角社区

Younger people let me be clear,聽 I really, truly need to talk to you sometimes, at least on the phone, stop just texting me! I work with young people at 海角社区, they are very bright people, in the same league as my students at Oxford.聽聽Many聽text me, but聽seem to be聽rather reluctant to actually talk to me on the phone.聽

Contrast this to an actual Skype text conversation I had this week with someone my age: KM: "What's new with you?" 聽AV: 聽"Hard to answer IM.聽Skype always startles me."聽 What a contrast.聽聽 So, Postmodern Generation, in this article let me explain to you why you need to聽break down and give me an old fashioned call or even office聽drop by. What got me started was that in this week's聽Sunday聽New York Times, Eilene Zimmerman聽the聽New York Times聽Career Coach,聽wrote, "Compounding that, young employees who have grown up connected to the Internet use social media sites, cell phones and texting more than other generations, who may prefer face-to-face interactions."聽聽 I don't know how old Eilene is, but boy did she get it right.聽 Why do middle aged people like phone and face-to-face?聽 It's really pretty simple and actually makes sense.

On the phone I can hear nuances in a voice that a text message totally lacks like (I lived in LA in the late 70s so can speak some Valley Girl). On the phone I hear whether you are upset or not, that you are delighted with the news or otherwise, I can hear a long pause and read something into it, and generally get it right.聽 The bandwidth of a voice is much broader and richer than a text.聽 Which allows me to back pedal聽if you are upset, or push forward if you are less upset than I thought you would be. I can be sensitive to your reaction and respond appropriately.

I asked Joseph Iannicelli, CEO of Standard Life Canada, his comment: 聽"I聽have seen countless聽examples of miscommunications, misinterpreting tone, misreading messages or reading into messages that were not there." 聽If this聽applies to e-mails, how much more so to texts?聽 OgilvyOne CEO Brian Fetherstonhaugh, says, " I talk to several thousand people in their 20鈥瞫 every year. 聽I often make a point about Texting and e-mail, 'How many people have solved a difficult emotional topic via e-mail or text ?', So far, I haven't found a single one."

Read full article: , September 27, 2011