by A. South

Created on: March 09, 2009

Thanks to the influx of e-mail, BlackBerrys and text messages, face-to-face communication is becoming a thing of the past. The benefits of technology are clear. Generally speaking, it offers quick communication, and makes it possible to easily communicate with a large number of people.

But the convenience of communicating with technology comes with a price. Interpersonal communication, or face-to-face communication, is diminishing, and surprisingly, so is employee productivity. Technology's impact on interpersonal communication is multi-faceted, and should be tempered with the benefits of technology.

What do text messages leave out?
Communication isn't just built on words. UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian found that in an interaction, a mere 7 percent of communication is derived from words. Instead, 55 percent of meaning comes from facial and body language and 38 percent comes from vocal inflection. Since e-mail and text communication is built on words alone, misunderstandings happen. When you are trying to communicate complicated or meaningful information, do it face to face to make sure your message gets across.

Communication snafus
Since e-mail was created, it's been backfiring. E-mail is quick and easy to use, but brevity breeds carelessness. Some e-mail blunders are harmless. You miss a typo or forget to send an attachment. Others are more costly though. They range from e-mails going to unintended parties to confidential information being leaked or hacked.

Hiding behind the computer screen
When you have a difficult conversation on the horizon, don't hide behind electronic communication. Sometimes it's easier to communicate behind the guard of the keyboard, but it isn't professional or mature. Plus, it's dangerous. If you plan to criticize an employee with constructive advice, they might infer a stronger tone than you intended. It's easy for an exchange to escalate out of control when you're using a method of communication where you don't consider consequences.

Too much information
You can e-mail all of your co-workers about the break room coffee policy with a click of a button, and send a snapshot of your new kitten to hundreds of your closest friends and family in under thirty seconds. Sounds great, right? Sort of, but there's harm in that as well. New research shows that too much information can be harmful. Too much information degrades the importance of a message, weakening its impact. Consider keeping in touch with hundreds of friends on Facebook versus keeping close relationships with your neighbors. Quantity does not always trump quality.

E-mail and text messages are great tools, but every now and then put down the BlackBerry, the cell phone and walk down the hall and talk to your co-workers, or peek over the fence and say hi to your neighbors. The key to technology is to use it to enhance your life, not let it take over.

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