Research Podcast

Communicating with Empathy in the Digital World 

In this podcast, John Jantsch meets with Nick Morgan to discuss communicating with empathy in the digital world. Throughout the duration of the podcast, many concepts are discussed relating to the content that we have learned in class. In the beginning, they start off by talking about how virtual communication has been extremely beneficial in certain situations. It provides a means of communicating with loved ones and friends who live far away and all the way to connecting with coworkers. While it does provide many benefits, there are some hurdles as well. 

Online communication has become quite addictive for younger, digital natives. The uptake in technology has impacted how younger generations learn. Many teenagers and young adults have found that it is becoming increasingly hard to learn with an abundance of technology. Older learning methods don't provide the same benefits in today's world. In addition, due to the addictive nature of cell phones, Morgan has found that, "there’s a direct correlation between the amount of time those two populations spend on their mobile phones or in virtual media and their likelihood of being depressed." (Jantsch, 2018) Given the fairly new mode of communication, it is essential that we adapt to communicating online. 

While online communication was meant to be a beneficial tool, it has led to some negative outcomes as well. When we communicate online, most people communicate as if they were in person. When we do that, "What happens is this huge wash of emotional information that normally gets exchanged between people easily and unconsciously, most of that gets lost." (Jantsch, 2018) When we are interacting in person, we are easily able to read facial expressions and infer emotion. Without the ability to do so,  it is hard to recognize the intent of a message. Without direct feedback, we often assume the worst. We unconsciously assume the worst about everyone and every situation which leads to feelings of anxiety and panic. In the week 4 learning materials, there is an article by Keith Ferrazzi titled, "How to Avoid Virtual Miscommunication". In that article, Ferrazzi discusses how miscommunication is often due to a lack of context. Oftentimes simple things like an exclamation mark can be misinterpreted due to the absence of social cues. Ferrazzi goes on to mention that, "We often think that others are more in sync with what we’re thinking than they really are. The obvious fix for this illusion is greater empathy."  (Ferrazzi, 2020) According to Professor Green, "Empathy is the ability to think and feel as others do." (Green, 2022) In order to eliminate as much miscommunication as possible, it is imperative that we have empathy. When we put ourselves in someone else's shoes, we are able to visualize how that person would perceive the message. When we are able to perceive a message how another individual would, it helps us change our messages to limit misinterpretations. 

Citations

Ferrazzi, K. (2020, March 31). How to Avoid Virtual Miscommunication. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2013/04/how-to-avoid-virtual-miscommun

Green, J. (2022). Challenges/Limitations to Mediated Communication [Slides]. Canvas. https://canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1870259/pages/challenges-slash-limitations-to-mediated-communication

Jantsch, J. (2018, October 31). Transcript of Communicating with Empathy in the Digital World. Duct Tape Marketing. Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://ducttapemarketing.com/transcript-empathy-virtual-communication/