The Communication Revolution - Part 2, Impacts on Social Communication Behavior

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This post is part 2 of a series of posts on the Communication Revolution and Deep Impact it has on us.  Part 1 of the series discussed how the Communication Revolution has brought on information overload and communication management issues.  This post focuses on the impact that new technology and communication modes have had on our social communication behavior and preferences.  Ultimately the series will end with recommendations and examples of what Unified Communication solutions can do to help us better cope with the less positive side effects of this revolution.


The Communication Revolution has given us mobile phones, social networks, texting, IM, voice, email etc. anywhere on a 24/7/365 basis if we want it.  There's been a shift from face to face and voice modes of communication to the "electronic" modes.  This link gives a few examples and observations on why paying attention to when/where/with whom to use different communication modes is important.  This survey sheds some light on communication modes preferred today.

How has the Communication Revolution impacted our social communication behavior?

• Interruptions and Distractions
• The communication modes available to us today enable more interruptions and distractions.  There are social impacts of serving these interruptions in the presence of others. 
• For example, there you are, meeting with a colleague in your office.  As you're talking an IM alert pops up on your PC screen.  You glance over, open it for a couple seconds, and then return to your conversation.  
• A phone call comes in, your phone rings, you glance at the caller ID and decide to leave it be.  
• You see and glance at an email that has arrived in your in-box because you see it's from your boss.  You open it and quickly to scan it's contents before resuming your conversation.   Not bad, right?  In these examples I've been polite but, despite that, have still interrupted the in-person interaction.
• Many are less polite:
• excusing themselves but picking up the call, or replying to the IM that popped up anyway
• replying to a text, email, tweet on your mobile while at the dinner table, (or even driving!)
• In short, we are multi-tasking far more and giving less than full attention to communicating with those in our presence.  I'm pretty sure this was considered rude at one point.  Today I'm not so sure.  This may or may not be a new "norm" in communication etiquette.  Either way the impact on how we communicate is obvious.
• The personal touch - not!
• Whatever the reason, some amount of personal communication has been replaced by impersonal electronic communication.  The evidence points to us getting more rude.
• Do you email or IM a colleague that sits a few doors down from you?
• Do you text friends back and forth trying to make plans?
• Do you email friends and family to "talk" about what's going on rather than call them up?
• Do you do any/all of the above in the presence of others?  Do you catch yourself saying "let me just answer this text", "just checking my FaceBook" or email"?
• Do you have to say "I'm sorry, can you repeat that, I was multi-tasking" often?
• Go on, admit it.  I know I'm as or more guilty than most!
• What happened to the phone call?  A few possible causes for people prefering the impersonal modes of communication include:
• Control the amount of time spent in the conversation.  You can "end it" more easily when not face to face or on the phone
• It can be asynchronous and therefore more interruptable for multi-tasking.
• Carry on more than one "conversation" at a time - can't do that on the phone
• The "blur" between your personal and professional communications and time
• Many professionals don't turn off at 6 pm.  Smartphones, mobile access, laptops and remote access to your company network have changed this dramatically.  We can be "connected" to work 24/7/365.  
• The interruption and distraction points above are not just an issue at work.  They impact your "personal" time and interactions.  
• In fact, advances in Unified Communications have enabled some of this.
• Seemless connection of your work extension to your mobile phone
• Work email on your mobile phone
• Voice mail conversion to text and then emailed to you
• When you add work and professional communications coming at you at all times of the day it you have the information overload situation described in my earlier post.
• The Identity Crisis
• Many of us have different "identities" to monitor and check separately - email, social networks
• I've got a work email, two personal emails, and three social networks.  As mentioned earlier I also have community interests with their own private communication mechanisms or email lists.  
• Some of us are in a profession where we serve multiple clients.  Communication and data context shifting between clients or "your identity" at the moment is another challenge brought on by the Communication Revolution.  Finding communication, data etc on a client-by-client or community of interest basis needs to be more efficient

The Communication Revolution and the communication capability it's given to us has impacted our communication preferences and social behavior - for better and worse.  Later in the series we'll discuss enhancements in Unified Communications and devices to help us better manage these changes.  What are your thoughts and needs?


The Communication Revolution Part 1 - Information Overload
The Communication Revolution Part 3 - Social Networking In The Enterprise
Link to - What Unified Communications Can Do - Part 1

The Communication Revolution Part 1 - Information Overload

With the Communication Revolution going on today many of us suffer information overload or management issues from time to time.  Information overload and/or inefficient management of communication carries a cost.  This post is part 1 of a series described here.  If you haven't read that it may help to go do so to set the stage and context for the follow-on posts.  This series of posts is regarding the communication revolution and where new Unified Communication solutions that are needed as a result.

What is information overload?  This link gives good background on the problem.
Using myself as an example, let's take a look at my communications inflow to get an idea of what information overload can be.

• Email - I get ~100-150 work emails and ~20 personal emails per day.  This may be light compared to some of you out there 

• Voice calls and voice mail - I receive ~ 20 calls per day on average.  Of those, roughly 50-75% wind up in voice mail on my desk or mobile.  In addition, 50% or more are actually received on my mobile phone rather than at my desk or home

• Instant Messages - I receive ~20 Instant Message (IM) "sessions" per day which amount to dozens or nearing 100 IM notes 

• Social Networking - I am active on some of the social networks as they are a good channel for enterprise workers.  Click here for some of the reasons why.   I follow many Twitter streams around UC, information overload, new technology and product announcements, innovation and more.  These streams are in the hundreds per day.  That doesn't even count the stream for specific people I follow. 

• Communities of Interest - Personally I am interested in certain music and fishing on-line communities.  At the moment these communities have their own guest board and messaging scheme.  Yet another place for me to check for information and messages!  I'm trying to convince them to move to Facebook or Twitter to at least remove this separate network.

 If I look back just five years ago, the IM mode and real-time social network feeds virtually didn't exist.  Online communities and web sites existed but have continued explosive growth.  Can you think of any business or club that doesn't have a web site, mailing list, guest book? 

So what's the problem? 

I don't claim that this list is complete but I include the following descriptions or "symptoms" of information overload:

• Inability to see/read the information you are receiving given the amount you receive on your device.  With so much coming at me, as described above, the probability of me seeing or knowing what contains true information I want to see, or requires response or action, is very low.  If you don't see or read it, it's not information!
• Social networks - On some topics the Twitter streams are so active there's high probability of missing and not having time to review the keyword stream or lists  history for "relevant" information.  The information directed to me by name is the only information I'm guaranteed to see.  Who knows what valuable information I missed completely or didn't see at all.
• Emails - reading emails takes time.  Many can be scanned by source/title and discarded in a couple seconds.  Others, if relevant, 15-60 sec to read and to absorb it's information.  Sometimes longer. Those requiring action or response can take many minutes.   Depending on how you process your in-box, you may have delay in seeing or acting on something more important.
• Voice mail is often the least likely to attract my attention.  Visual voice mail allows me to scan the whole in-box much like an email box which is a help.  Again, depending on when I get around to it, and usually having to listen to them for content regardless, important information or responses to requests can be delayed.
• Feeling of anxiety and helplessness that you are "missing" useful information or not responding to the right communications in a timely manner. 
• With so much information available to us studies have discussed the negative effects of so much information.  Inefficiency, fatigue, anxiery are among the topics mentioned.  Click here for one example post covering it.  In addition some are showing that we feel pressured to take advantage of this "information".  Pressure to multi-task our communication channels thereby impacting focus.  Feelings of guilt if you don't look at all the RSS, blogs, search results that you receive.  Do you feel you have to look at your emails, feeds, social networks, all the time for fear of "missing" something, or, just because "it's there"?  Do you feel like you need to constantly monitor your incoming communication and reply as immediately as possible?  You may suffer information overload syndrome - especially check out the video it contains.
• Interruption of thought process - phone calls or other communications can be an interruption that has a cost of getting "back in the groove" afterwards.   
• There you are, deep in thought on a technical article you are reviewing or a detailed response to an email.  Out of the corner of your eye you notice a new email from a blog you follow, or an IM from a colleague.  You open it, begin a session or to read the blog.  Before you know it 10 minutes have gone by.  You finish the session and head out for a cup of coffee.  You return to your desk, sit down, and say to yourself "now what was I doing?".  I read one study where this was quantified but unfortunately didn't save the link.  If I recall correctly, studies showed it took as long as 2-5 min to fully return to a deep thought groove if interrupted.   I'll add it if I find it.

I've written before on tips and suggestions to reduce information overload - link.   Later on in this series of posts I'll get to specific ideas and directions in Unified Communication and communication device enhancements to help divert the "deep impact" asteroid.

Link to Part 2 - Social Behavior Impacts
Link to Part 3 - Social Networking For The Enterprise
Link to - What Unified Communications Can Do - Part 1

The Communnications Revolution - "Deep Impact" About To Strike

There's no doubt we're in a communications revolution.  It's like a "deep impact" asteroid ready to strike unless we take steps to divert it!

Social networking, real time news and blog feeds, and the continued advances and adoption of mobile smart phones have been some of the major drivers of this change over the last 5 years.  These advances have given us communication & information access anywhere, all the time, and in real time. A good thing, right?  Yes, mostly.  This revolution has also created new challenges and behavior changes for individuals and enterprises.  More than ever we wrestle with how to efficiently access, utilize and control of all this new communication/information without  potentially stressful and negative side-effects.

What are some of these impacts?

• Individuals are overwhelmed with the amount of information and communication modes available to them and coming at them 24/7 if you let it.  Information Overload.  From a business perspective, employee productivity, information security, and legal liability concerns arise.
• Businesses need to address the fact that employees and customers are "talking" in many new ways.  Changes need to be made in how they "listen" and reach the customer base.  Changes need to be made in how all forms of communication are presented to and managed for employee productivity and collaboration.  Customer service & contact centers need to deal with social network communication
• Social changes: We are choosing different communication modes and preferences.  24/7 real-time availability of information is altering social communication behavior.  The boundary between "personal" and professional identity and time is blurring.

Unified Communications applications and communication devices need to evolve and help us address the challenges put forth by today's communication/information technology.  Help us divert the "deep impact" as enterprises and as individuals.

There a few key aspects of this communication revolution that I'll discuss over my next few posts.  In the end I'll map Unified Communication application and device enhancement ideas and example use cases of where/how they may help!

• Information overload and management - personal and business impacts.  What are they? 
• Social behavior changes regarding communication style and the blur between personal and professional needs
• Examples of Enterprise benefits to finding ways to embrace new communication modes and behaviors
• Changes in Unified Communications and devices that can help divert the communication revolution asteroid

Stay tuned and I'll add the links as I create the follow-on posts.  Looking forward to an ongoing dialog on diverting the asteroid!

Link to Part 1 - information overload impacts
Link to Part 2 - Social Behavior Impacts
Link to Part 3 - Social Networking In The Enterprise
Link to - What Unified Communications Can Do - Part 1