Online Communication as a Time Sink

Online Communication as a Time Sink

How to communicate clearly online.

My husband and I took a walk in beautiful Ala Moana Park on the island of O'ahu. We needed to get out of our small, tiny apartment in the concrete jungle of Honolulu and remember why we lived in Hawai'i. Even in paradise, it is easy to forget you live in paradise. While walking among the Banyan trees (pictures I took are included throughout this post), we got to talking about how we need to do this more often, how there is not enough time in the day, and we pondered, why?

It is a good question. We both work online, my husband runs his own business as a Microsoft, Google, and Database programmer, and I am an instructor and course designer. Working from home, we have the luxury of setting our schedules. As such, we should be able to schedule a walk mid-morning or thereabouts. But it rarely happens. To make this walk happen today, we had to set a date, sink up our Google calendars to confirm, break the date, reset the time and day again, and then tear ourselves away from our emails and work discussions to go on our walk.

From the moment we get up in the mornings, we are locked firmly to our computers, answering email after email, communicating over discussion boards on Learning Management Systems (LMS), BaseCamp, Skype, Slack, and Trello. Out time seems to sink away while we communicate with students and clients alike.

Patricia Wallace, the author of The Psychology of the Internet, is the first scholar I know of to really examine the issue of being online as a time sink. For Wallace, the internet is a time sink because we are always online: “Do you colleagues expect you to read email in the evenings and on weekends? Does your boss expect that? Do you expect that of yourself, and of your coworkers” (Wallace, 2016, P. 322)? But it is not just the amount of time we spend online communicating, or how much we are expected to spend online communicating, but how we communicate.

Both my husband and I spend hours working to understand what someone is trying to communicate to us online, and this where the time sink really comes into play. People forget that when you do away with all the signals that nonverbal communication offers and you rely only on textual communication, you are left with a very poor form of communication. I mean "poor" in contrast to the "rich" mixture of signals one gets when communicating face-to-face or even digitally using phones and videos. Most people do not know how to communicate using text only, and the sad thing is, we mostly communicate this way in our modern world: email, text messages, message boards, social media and the like. Emoji can only go so far in setting the tone.

Let me give you an example, more than once I have seen my husband contacted by a potential client who is excited to work with him, but the client gets upset that he cannot get a quick bid on a project. The problem? The client is not able to communicate clearly about their needs, and as a result, my husband has to ask question after question to get the information needed to construct a bid. That means email after email is sent and as he gains a bit of new information, this leads him to have to ask more questions to get a clear understanding of the project. These clarification sessions can last up to a week if the potential client continues to be unclear. Yes, a phone call could be set up, and it likely would be beneficial, but so many people today shy away from the phone, opting for email and text messages.

As an instructor, I have the same problem with my students. These commutation issues are compounded by brief, imprecise language used. For example, I often get emails saying:

Dr. McCarthy, I don't understand what I have to do. Thanks, [student's name - usually I don't even have a name to go on].

In this example, I have no idea which class the student happens to be in, what task the student is trying to understand, or even if s/he is talking about an assignment or rather a philosophical crisis.

If we want to save ourselves from the time sink of communicating online, we need to learn how to communicate online. Here are some good rules to consider:

• Say what you mean, and stay away from fuzzy language. We often assume that people will "get" our meaning, but it is simply too hard over text-based communication. You likely heard this advice in your English 101 class, but it bears repeating; be specific and lead your reader to where you need him or her to go. Don't let them wander in the void without guidance.

• Set the tone of your communication; yes, set the tone even in business communications. "Aloha, I hope you are well! Say, I needed to talk to you about my grade ... your work on the project ...." You don't have to apologetic, saccharin or overly emotional, but take the time to make sure the tone of your communication will be received, likely, in the spirit you intended. You have no idea how the person on the other side of the communication is doing. Their mother might have just died, s/he might have won the lottery, or stubbed their toe, or happens to be lacking in sleep. Brief, quick and to the point text-based communications can easily be taken the wrong way.

• Find the right tone of presentation for the type of communication channel you are communicating through. Email communication is different than a text message, which is different than a social media post, vs a work discussion board.

Finally, if what you have to say is too complicated to say without writing a small novel, pick up the phone, Facetime, Skype, or request an in-person meeting. Don't be afraid of that connection because I can assure you, poor text-based communication will be far more of a time sink then that phone call.

Here is to good communication acts and more walks! Cheers.