Missing the emotion that occurs when people meet face to face, virtual networks have us chasing “the junk food of connection” - likes, clicks, Retweets - which give us a quick thrill but not the satisfaction of a hug. Does the silence during a conference call mean that everyone is in awe of what you just said or completely tuned out? Deprived of emotional subtext, we find it difficult to make decisions. The human mind constantly assesses its surroundings and the people Morgan notes, “In the real world, people forget and forgive.” In the virtual one, however, “all those embarrassing photos from your wild college parties are still out there.” You have a disturbingly limited control over your digital persona. As a result, people’s attention spans are shorter in the virtual world, perhaps as little as 10 minutes. This also explains why the virtual world seems less interesting to us: in the real world, emotions are what keep us engaged. An example: someone doesn’t answer an email, and we imagine that they must be angry. With so few sensory cues, we get little information about other people’s emotions, which means that our normal levels of empathy are inaccurate, and we fill in the blanks with anxiety. “Thus we find the virtual world repetitive, confusing, and tension-filled,” Morgan writes. The virtual world deprives us of this sensory feedback. We use our five senses, as well as our unconscious minds, to track any changes around us. Humans have evolved by constantly scanning the environment for information that could help us predict danger or home in on potential prey. Morgan groups virtual communication problems into five major categories. “We need to begin to consciously add the emotional subtext back into virtual communications to avoid the costs - personal and financial - associated with miscommunication.” Can you hear me? Five big problems in virtual communication Morgan argues that we must learn to communicate differently in this brave new digital world.
None of those conditions apply to a conference call.
The human brain was de- signed to resolve issues of survival in person, in unstable conditions and in near-constant motion. That boredom is due to the isolation that is inherent to virtual communication, with its lack of sensory and emotional cues. If you work for a multinational company, it’s hard to avoid that weekly conference call, during which everyone mutes their phones and does other things while pretending to listen in. Virtual communication is fast, practical, and, most of all, inescapable in today’s work environment.
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