Despite the rapid development in telecommunication technologies, we still haven’t figured out a way to totally remove and replace face-to-face interactions. Yes, it seems like meeting people physically still play a fundamental role in people’s personal and professional lives. Then why is it that even with the invention of Google Hangouts, imessage or slack we still continue to go back to our prime method of communicating with people and meet face to face?
Most products and research that emerged focused on telecommunication: video and virtual reality communication tools that create the sense of being there, social networking sites that help people seek and develop social relationships online and asynchronous multimedia messaging services. However, there hasn’t been much research done into creating communication tools that go beyond the richness of face-to-face interaction. Then what is it that face-to-face interactions afford that other communication tools don’t?
The most prominent factor that tools lack today is the clarity of the message that face-to-face interactions provide. With physical proximity we give rich mechanisms to help improve the clarity of the message. Subtle facial expressions, certain body movements or change of intonation all together provide so much more depth and context to the things that we communicate. Let’s take an example. Your friend runs close towards you with a big smile to tell you how adorable your pet is in a high pitch tone. “Oh, how CUTE!” Now, imagine a scenario where the same friend stands far away from where you’re standing and tells you how much she adores your pet with a disgusted frown on her face. “OH how…cute.” We now understand that your friend is saying the same words but communicating two very different messages. We have come to use emoji’s for that very reason — to provide clarity to the things that we communicate. However, it seems like we need a far more upgraded emojis maybe animojis, to depict that subtle complexities of our emotions.
Another mechanism that is as important as clarity is intersubjectivity. Simply put, it’s that I know that you know what I’m talking about — a form of reassurance and check point to see if we are on the same understanding of what’s being communicated. With facial expressions and other non verbal forms of communication, a person’s involuntary physical reaction to what’s been communicated can easily demonstrate whether the message has been communicated clearly and accurately.
Now, we are surely getting closer and closer to communicating both clarity and intersubjectivity with the advances in technology. AR provides more context to what’s being communicated and avatars allow clearer intersubjectivity. However with all of this in mind, I must say it may take us a while to truly mimic and surpass the most basic and the oldest method of communicating: face-to-face interactions.
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