Communic8ing

Look back over the past few centuries and you will see a pattern in the way communication tools have altered the way the language is constructed.

Formality has gradually been replaced by a more relaxed approach to communicating. The introduction of email brought with it a new and different way of communication, often more conversational in style. The introduction of SMS and IM seems to have taken this relaxed approach and given it a healthy dose of Prozac. At the risk of sounding old, quick and direct communication is now often peculiarly abbreviated, grammatically hopeless or indeed just wrong. I have no issue with this in social circles but in business communication needs to be clear and unambiguous.

So what happens when this language begins to infiltrate the work place? UC platforms can do many things for a business but they can’t cover up for poor communication. The inevitable increase in video calls will probably go some way to limit potential issues as, well, the face to face approach has worked for thousands of years has it not?

So in an age where the number of ways of communicating is ever changing, are we actually heading towards an additional, even bigger shift in communication, but this time driven by a generational change in language style rather than a technical evolution?