More Communication Doesn’t Mean Better Understanding

What’s the point of communications technology if it makes us worse at communicating?

Photo by Árpád Czapp on Unsplash

Imagine that, instead of staring at a screen wherever you are, you live in a tribe thousands of years ago, before writing was invented. How would you have communicated? How would ideas have spread?

Well, you would have had to do everything orally, wouldn’t you? And your society’s oral communications would have a number of advantages and drawbacks.

On the plus side,

• Pretty much everybody had access to the state-of-the-art communications technology. Every member of the society, no matter how powerful or weak, would be able to be heard. Best of all, all communication was free. All you had to do was talk.
• People had to be accountable for their ideas. If the king wanted to communicate a new, unpopular law, he (or his representatives) would have to stand there in front of everybody and endure the boos or cold stares.
• In-person communication allowed people to use their nonverbal communication skills. Quite a bit can be conveyed with a grin or a scowl.

But there are a number of negatives to primitive, face-to-face communication: