One of my favorite classes I get to teach this semester is 7th grade Communications. In the process of thinking through all the various components that make up any particular message we receive or send during the course of our days, it finally dawned on me why I hate email so much - at least for anything beyond the most rudimentary conveyance of any material void of emotion.
Consider how much vital information is conveyed in a basic face-to-face exchange:
In Person:
The Words Themselves
The Speaker's Tone and Volume
The Speaker's Facial Expressions
The Speaker's Body Language
Now, consider how the pool of information shrinks as distance grows between communicator and audience:
Video Call Over Zoom:
The Words Themselves
The Speaker's Tone and Volume
The Speaker's Facial Expressions
Phone Call:
The Words Themselves
The Speaker's Tone and Volume
Email or Text Message:
The Words Themselves
How often do a communicator's tone and volume add extremely vital information to the spoken words? Always! Not to mention the possibility of tone completely negating the plain message of the words. (Pause to imagine hearing a spouse say the words "I'm fine" to your query of "What's wrong?")
With an email, the communication is stripped down to the bare words standing alone. Nothing more. No smile. No shrug of the shoulders. No noticeable irritation in the tone of voice.
If the message contains any potentially emotional component (for the writer or for the reader or for both), the communication becomes a minefield.
Email, outside of narrowly defined valid uses, functions as a tool of mass miscommunication.
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