Nothing New About New Media?

I tend to write about things that are “on my radar.” Many times it’s something that has gotten me excited in either a good or bad way. Well, this one is always a hot button for me and it needs to be for all of us “netizens.” Communication. Simple good old-fashioned two-way communication that achieves the goal of, dare I say, communicating. I fear for the future of communication. I think we are possibly slipping into a Dark Age of sorts regarding communication, where we THINK we communicate more but all we are really doing is talking / writing / yelling / marketing / “you name it” more, without truly communicating. If you have read anything by me on this subject, I apologize, but it is my suspicion that for the rest of my life this will be a subject matter that will stay hot.

Image by BryanPerson via Flickr

It has been said that there is “nothing new under the sun.” For those of you who think that some great philosopher of the past couple hundred years coined this one I will point you to my reference which is the from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes 1:9. I go to this reference because despite being written around 250 B.C. but I think it applies perfectly today. What we do today on the internet is actually nothing new.
Right now you are thinking, “Looks like Frank has lost it,” but hear me out. As much as we want to pat ourselves on the back for all the innovation and technology and progress we surround ourselves with we are not doing anything new at the core here. What I mean is we are simply refining how we communicate. From the first syllable uttered by man, to the first written word, to the first printed word, to the first phone call, to the first TV set, to the first e-mail, it’s all about one thing: communication. Nothing new. Nothing revolutionary. Something that has been around since man has existed. There is nothing new under the sun.
We Twitter (or tweet), we have Facebook pages, we have LinkedIn profiles, we have blogs, and everything else ad nauseum. My question to you, however, is, “Are you truly communicating better?” Just because more people read or hear you, does it mean that they understand or even care about you? I doubt it. I suspect we are creating more of a social norm that ANY communication can now be called a relationship. I think there is more using than communicating. I enjoyed Stacy Lukas’ rant on this same subject and it made me think. What I am I doing to contribute to this watering down (or even dumbing down) of this critically important and basic component of being part of the human race?
For the upcoming year, I am going to make sure I don’t dehumanize myself or the people I call friends any further. I plan to do this by:

1. At a minimum, calling people that I want to know better so they can see that they can hear my voice.
2. Getting in a car or on a plane to meet people that I really want to have a relationship with, so we can shake hands (after using a hand sanitizer of course since we all don’t get out much and would hate to catch something 😉 ).
3. Asking more questions of people so I can more fully understand WHY they say or do something, rather than just nodding my head and for lack of a better term, dismissing their thought.

,li>Never using the word “friend” as a verb. (Facebook folks please stop this practice so we can actually apply the word to real friendships again, thanks.)

4. Writing a note or sending a card to someone. I know that when I receive a handwritten note these days, I take real notice. (And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, not one of those form notes that look handwritten. Could you say, “I am a fake” any louder?)
5. At least using Skype to look at someone when I speak to them!