Comments on: Open Communication – Now and Forever?

By: Lisa Braithwaite

Lisa Braithwaite — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:19:19 +0000

It’s a whole new world, Bert, and we can either hide from it or embrace it and learn how to make it work for us. Iran, the bombings in India and the Hudson crash are perfect examples of expanding the use of a tool that already existed and making it even more effective and useful than we knew it could be.

By: Business Communication

Business Communication — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:17:36 +0000

As a business skills trainer, I see that the internet, texting, social networking and especially Twitter, are impacting how effective we communicate in person. We know that since the invention of the telephone, people discovered they could be whoever and however they wanted with this new sense of invulnerable anonymity. It is true that in repressive regimes, this can be terrifically liberating but in our free country and other’s similar, the people become less socially ept in person.

By: Robert Hurdman

Robert Hurdman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:10:28 +0000

I agree and disagree. There is much more communication now than ever before. However, the increased communication is not necessarily of high quality. As an example, my email inbox is so bombarded with spam, that occasionally important messages are lost. As another example, the comments section of a newspaper article online can be two, five, ten or more times longer than the actual article. Many of the comments are simply emotional reactions (sometimes to other commenters) and bring nothing valuable to the discussion. As an aside, sometimes the articles fall into that same category.
I think there is great potential for misuse. I feel that a major form of disrespect is to try and manipulate people. As you’ve shown, totalitarian governments excel in this area, and it is becoming less effective. That’s a good thing. At the same time, it is now easier than ever before to form a mob and harass a person, a corporation or an organization. I am afraid that people forget that just because they feel strongly about something, it doesn’t make them right. An example might be the disabled Nova Scotia man who can’t get service at the drive through window of Tim Horton’s, because there is a policy against serving anyone on a motorized wheelchair (or on foot, or on bicycle) for their own safety. He refuses the restaurant’s offer to send an employee outdoors to serve him, instead appealing to the Human Rights Commission (and the public) to try and force the store’s hand. (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/06/15/hortons-scooter.html?ref=rss).
Hopefully, truth and right will carry the day, in Iran and in Canada. Unfortunately, I don’t think increased communication over the Internet is the only ingredient. The ability to interact positively with other human beings, a skill that is not taught (in our society), seems to be increasingly rare, but increasingly important.

By: Fred Harrell

Fred Harrell — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:24:11 +0000

You are absolutely right. Closing out an entire nation from the rest of the world was the dictator’s strongest card… it’s gone now. Hallelujah.