nemoorange.com

Sorry, I only speak email.

I took a phone call yesterday and turned into an idiot. I understood the guy on the other end of the line, and I couldn't do anything for him. I started clicking through emails, to give me some bearing on the conversation. Looking over the email and listening to him simultaneously, I was just as lost. Eventually, he realized I couldn't help him out, and let me go. How could such an incident happen? Surely such an accomplished public speaker and communication scholar like myself would never encounter this confrontation. I've got a diagnosis.

It's not so much that I communicate better via email rather than over the phone. I believe the strain is caused by some sort of conditioning. After reading and responding to textual information for several hours, my thought processes adapt accordingly. Email correspondence feels like a left-brain/analytical activity: Find important words and phrases, address each one, organize the message as a whole. Phone correspondence is more conversational. The medium allows for more non-verbal cues to be interpreted: paralinguistics, rate, pitch, dialect, accent, etc. Consequently, when I get a call, I try to make sense of it as if it were an email. Since the words are coming at me much more rapidly than I'm used to, I just can't put a decent idea together. I can't visually organize the message like I can looking at the text. It's not a matter of aural vs visual information, more like switching from one thought process to an entirely different one. Although the subject of the communication might be the same ("Hey, I just got this email and I need you to clear something up . . ."), but in two different languages.

And I know I'm not alone on this. I'll approach co-workers and ask a quick question. First response is "Say that again." We're all stuck in this email-mode and when confronted with alternative mediums, it takes a while to switch over. The more you communicate primarily through email, the more likely your thinking processes will be aligned to the medium. For my typical day at work, this isn't a problem. Keeping in that mindset allows me to better tackle the daily email rodeo. The danger lies in those situations where email just won't cut it. Sales, mediation, relationship-maintenance, brainstorming, any of the arts: these subjects rely on traditional conversation. By replacing conversation with other modes of communication, we limit the way we can approach the subject matter. Email is perfect for micro-management, but terrible for telling stories. Ever notice that those joke-emails are never funny? Well, maybe because they are never funny in the first place. Regardless, just because email is quick and easy does not mean its better suited for the task. At the same time, it's hard to switch communication modes without some difficulty. I often want to "talk things over" but have a hard time getting the gears of conversation in motion. Just know for now, when you call me up, I'm not drunk at work, I'm just in the email-zone . . . . sometimes both.