James Drogan

A number of things -- some funny, some serious -- on the subject of comnmunications have come my way over the last few days.

The first is from the March 29 edition of the New York Times.  I suppose one might call it "The Descent of Man." 

I'm also reminded here of the Seventh Annual Symposium on Communication and Communication Intensive Instruction Sponsored by the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute at Baruch College, Apriul 27, 2007.  The theme was "New Rules: Convention and Change in Communication."  My preparatory notes for this conference can be found here.

Related to the mention of twitter in the above cartoon is the ext item, an IT Conversation, "Scott Lemon - TopFollowFriday," regarding the growth and use of Twitter.  There is a lot of technical language in this podcast, but listen carefully for hints of change in the manner in which people communicate.

This third item popped up on g-mail this morning.  Today is, of course, April Fools' Day and this is a bit of a spoof on the powers of google.  On the other hand, it may not be too far from the truth.  In my family we call these sorts of things "caboose stories," that is, an untrue story containing a certain amount of plausible truth.

The last item is a podcast by Susan RoAne, "Face to Face."

"Susan RoAne, author of the book Face to Face: How to Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World, talks to Moira Gunn about how basic conversational and social skills have deteriorated. RoAne's book offers simple steps to more effective communication."

RoAne suggests that digital communication, by its very nature, considerable narrows the communcation bandwidth and is, in some situations, inappropriate.  I agree.  There have been times when I have walked from one end of campus to the other to have a face-to-face conversation.  She brings out things to think about.