Barriers to Communication

The Downside of Technology

Now that we have digital media as a way to bolster better communication amongst people, it is necessary to take a look at some of the problems that can be caused by relying too heavily on technology.

One of the most obvious problems in relying on technology is that it can fail. Cellular phone batteries go dead. Internet connections get interrupted. Fax machines break. Entire hard drives crash. These are all very real impediments to effective communication. If you absolutely need to discuss a business idea with a potential investor, and you forgot to charge your phone battery, you are not going to look very professional.

Remember that there are a variety of aspects of communication that have nothing to do with actually speaking. Being unprepared for an important conversation or presentation says something about you without you even uttering a word.

Another problem with some technology is that people forget that they have very little privacy when it comes to things like the Internet. If you get mad and write a hasty email, all the other person has to do is forward it to everyone in his or her address book, and everyone can see how unprofessional you have been.

It is also easy to overlook the fact that the Internet is not as anonymous as we might think. When you write something online, there is always a possibility of it being traced back to you and hurting you. Blogging about your job, for instance, may break the rules of a nondisclosure agreement you signed when you started working. Many employers these days will do an Internet search using prospective employee's names and will take anything they find (articles, comments, social media profiles) into consideration when hiring.

Finally, communication can suffer when we use technology like text messaging and email simply because those media do not convey the nuance of what we are trying to communicate. Let's look at the difference between the "content message" and the "relationship message". The content message is what you say, and the relationship message is how you say it. When you send someone an email, your recipients are usually only able to determine the content message. Even if it seems completely obvious to you that you are being sarcastic, this may not come through to the reader. Misinterpretations are a very serious problem when we rely on electronic forms of communication.