Lets get back to some real Gossip, shall we

 

While I was reading an article in the HT today on how internet/ social media conversations are changing the way communicate and how that has taken over the real conversations and and as to how big a hole that we have dug doing this. A few years back I wrote about the Bane of the internet in form of collective outrage, here is the link.( http://rohitmohan1.blogspot.com/2014/08/outrage-eous-bane-of-internet.html)

This following thought process is in continuation to the context, which is slightly more relevant today, I am quoting many examples cited in the HT article , shall edit and give credit to the writer in due course.

“ In-person One on One communication is 25% about words ,

and 75% about expressions and body language”

 Imtiaz Ali

Today we have less time although we communicate more and with more people, sometimes to thump one’s own chest, sometimes to make a point of view to many people at once and most times just for some relevance and attention from more and more people some who matter and most who do not.

Social media communication has had a degenerative impact on our language and articulation, mostly written and also on oral interactions which are losing relevance. There are different words used for slightly different forms of expressions and they can be conveniently clubbed with words like “ troll “ “ LOL” “OMG”  " LMAO" " SMH" which are universal and often can be typed quickly on the big phone screens and importantly are acceptable responses to a galaxy of sentences or questions from the other side.

To add to it, there is often an emoticon attached next to any sentence one types to ensure that the composer of the text is also able to communicate the “ tone “ of the message via the emoticon, a rude statement with an eye wink is meant to be taken as a joke or sarcasm, without an emoticon, you could still take the words on face value. Read this para again. 

Many in old school purists would favor  precise expressions of thoughts ,  so “ Intimidated”  and “ Infuriated” are completely different expressions which the internet generation can generalize using the term “ trolled” for both expressions mentioned here,  and “ Angered” and “ Exasperated” are very similar words which are used in almost identical contexts . This is true for any language.

Its not just about the precision of words and expression, In person communication also entails learning others point of view, as we often don’t antagonize anyone sitting in front of you as easily in comparison to us antagonizing the same person on a Whats-app group or Facebook chat as we care less about backlash, sometimes we hope for it.

Humans cant possibly maintain a social life with as many people as we do, we often end up cluttering our lives because we communicate with so many people, we see random contacts uploading holiday pics and get enraged with our lives and finances, and end up commenting on a status of a friend we have not met in 25 years just because he wrote something anti-Modi and its our duty to prove them right. We have to wish random people on their birthdays on whatsapp groups, just to confirm to some sort of unwritten ordinance of a whatsapp group, rather than wishing the same person directly, if that person matters enough. The point is that we have too much clutter in our lives to think about the things that matter to us and the real friends that do.

In some ways the old school get-together and gossip over tea or beer is the best way to communicate and to get close with friends and family. You might have 100’s of whatsapp groups and thousands of friends on Facebook but the friends that matter are the ones that you call to chat and make efforts to meet and not necessarily “check-in” with when you meet.