Communicating digitally has become an integral part of our lives, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We rely on various platforms and devices to connect with our friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers.
Nevertheless, digital communication poses some challenges and opportunities for our interpersonal relationships, and these include:
- How do we express our emotions and manage conflicts online?
- How do we balance our online and offline interactions?
- How do we cope with the digital divide and the digital overload?
These are some of the questions that this article will explore, drawing on relevant research from different contexts. We aim to provide you with a better understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of digital communication, painting a clear picture of the Internet.
Understanding Digital Communication
In simple terms, digital communication involves exchanging information, messages, and ideas using digital technologies and platforms. It is the transmission of data through electronic devices and networks, which enables real-time interaction, instant messaging, video conferencing, and more.
While it takes different forms, from emails to social media interactions, digital communication has become the standard for conveying information. Whether texting a friend or sharing your cat’s pictures on social media, it's effective and efficient for passing information.
Challenges of Digital Communication in Interpersonal Relationships
While individuals and corporations use these virtual communications, this article will focus on personal relationships. Essentially, Internet communication has benefits, but the challenges are no laughing matter; some include:
Absence of Body Language
Although we prioritize speaking correctly to convey information, studies reveal that 70-93 percent of all communication is non-verbal. Essentially, body language and tonality work hand-in-hand with the words we speak to pass the information entirely and its context.
Unfortunately, this factor doesn't exist with digital communication, as texts fail to convey tonality, facial gestures, and hand movements. Therefore, recipients can fill in the missing parts with the previous context or opt for a monotonous interaction.
No Correction for Mistakes
Social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram let you edit or unsend a message with errors. Unfortunately, this luxury only exists with instant messaging apps, as emails have yet to adopt this feature.
Therefore, errors like putting the wrong link, typos, or incorrect information are impossible to correct. The only correct approach is thoroughly proofreading the email before sending or resending the updated copy and notifying the recipient.
This error can be problematic in personal relationships where missing crucial details when sending season greetings or congratulatory emails may weaken your message.
Dependence on Digital Communication
Today's society relies heavily on digital communication, whether celebrating someone's achievement or sending condolences for a loss. While this convenience lets us communicate efficiently, it remains problematic.
Some situations require a physical presence to be effective, such as congratulating a new mother or catching up with friends. Excessively depending on social media and emails to communicate slowly stifles emotional creativity and develops feelings of isolation and depression.
Doomscrolling
The Internet is vast and growing exponentially, making it hard to quantify. Some estimate that the Internet will reach 175 zettabytes in 2022, which equals 1,000 exabytes, or 1 trillion gigabytes.
Essentially, there's a lot to see as people digitally share their lives online, but unfortunately, this can quickly be overwhelming. One example is doomscrolling, a seemingly simple task that can lead to:
- Mental exhaustion
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Sedentary behaviours and more
Privacy Issues
Security and privacy breaches are amongst the Internet’s most significant problems since people with malicious intent constantly try to steal your data. This is possible through phishing websites, hacking, or sending malware via emails or instant messages.
Such issues make it necessary to be mindful of what messages you open and the content you share online. The simple website you share can contain malicious content that infects you and the recipient's device.
Benefits of Digital Communication
Despite these drawbacks, digital communication still benefits our personal lives. The most common advantage is its effectiveness at conveying information across the planet, unlike traditional letters. Some perks of digital communication worth exploring include:
Cost-Effectiveness
Imagine the cost of travelling to share with your friend exciting news or important information. It's expensive, especially if they're unavailable. Fortunately, digital communication has evolved to allow high-quality sound calls on WhatsApp or Zoom.
Essentially, digital communication has made connecting with loved ones more seamless, even compared to traditional calling via telecom services. These options cost hundreds of dollars for international calls but now cost fractions, thanks to the Internet.
Accessibility
Our reliance on the Internet has made it accessible for free and in public spaces. With an active smartphone, anyone can harness the Internet at places like McDonald's, digitally connecting with friends, family, and groups or gamble using free casino chips no deposit required at Slotozilla Canada.
This freedom also makes it easier to attend meetings thanks to conference calling platforms like Zoom and Skype. Therefore, you can quickly participate in a therapy session, have a virtual family reunion, and more.
Diversity
Digital communication also exposes us to a diverse range of people, cultures, and perspectives that we might not encounter offline. We can learn from different sources of information, join various online communities, and participate in various online activities to enrich our knowledge and broaden our horizons.
This level of exposure can also help us appreciate and celebrate our identities and values as we express ourselves creatively and confidently online. The Internet also helps us find support and solidarity from others who share our experiences, interests, and goals, showing one way that digital communication betters our lives.
Convenience
This method of interaction offers us a high level of convenience and flexibility in our personal lives. We can communicate with anyone anytime, anywhere, with a device and an Internet connection.
We can also choose the mode and format of communication that suits our preferences and needs, such as text, voice, or video. This convenience also allows us to multitask and allocate our time to other things like working, studying, or shopping.
Engagement
This ease of communication via the Internet enables us to engage more actively and creatively with our relationships. Essentially, emojis, stickers, gifs, filters, and games help to enhance our communication, adding fun and humour.
This technological advancement also makes it easier to share our experiences and opinions with several people simultaneously. We can send photos, videos, audio, and links to show what we are doing, seeing, hearing, and learning. Others can also provide feedback on the content shared, creating an effective system of communication and engagement.
Conclusion - Finding Balance
As we have seen, digital communication has benefits and drawbacks for our personal lives. Therefore, finding a balance between using digital communication and maintaining our offline relationships is crucial. This means using tools to help monitor our online activities to avoid doom scrolling, proofreading emails before sending and verifying a link or website security.
However, above all, managing the drawbacks of digital communication involves spending time associating with people offline. Striking such a balance can help us to enjoy the advantages of digital communication, letting us use it as a tool instead of losing control.
