TALK. How important it can be. And how different, depending on the channel.
We sometimes say “talk is cheap”. But it can also be both expensive, difficult and frustratingly muddled.
IRL is the best channel if you ask me. Face to face, there is so much more substance and “reality” in our interaction, conversation, chat. Much more real broadband (all senses being online.) Our “likes” (= a smile, hug, kind word and willing ear) are worth so much more than any digital, anonymous “like”.
But sometimes one has to settle for second best. What would that be?
Old fashioned telephony can be okay. Less radiation, less poor reception, etc.
Skype with video is not bad at all. I would give the silver medal to Skype.
What comes next? And bear in mind that I am now thinking of the therapeutic effects of talk, interchange and conversation. Too little two-way talk, and one becomes a “wall-climber”. (No, that’s not a fly on the wall, that’s me.)
Enter “social media”. They are supposedly about “talk” and conversation and exchange and “sharing”. Yes, but they don’t even reach third place with me. Why not?
Because here talk 1) has become commercialized (somebody is indirectly making money out of the the fact that we want, enjoy, and need to exchange thoughts and feelings with each other), 2) is peppered with ads, and 3) is intercepted (the digital “room” is bugged).
Imagine having a heart to heart talk with a friend at your favorite coffee house and suddenly they put microphones on each table. “We want to make this place more happening, more SOCIAL!”
I don’t know about you but my conversation would freeze and lose most of it’s spontaneity.
This stops me from having enjoyable conversations on for example Facebook. Zuckerberg is the sixth richest person on earth (thanks to us), the ads are there, the interception is there.
No, “social media” are much too far removed from the coffee house.
And yet, we would need some better, good alternatives when the best ones are not available. Something 1) non-commercial (of course one could pay a certain price for it, just as we buy a latte at Wayne’s Coffee even if we just want to sit and talk), 2) lacking ads, and 3) lacking snooping.
The entrepreneur, inventor, thinker who comes up with a Great Idea here is worth a million “likes”. At least!