{"id":4407,"date":"2004-11-05T16:07:01","date_gmt":"2004-11-05T16:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdctraining.com\/?p=4407"},"modified":"2004-11-05T16:07:01","modified_gmt":"2004-11-05T16:07:01","slug":"when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/","title":{"rendered":"When the medium is the message &#8211; The Toronto Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/tediummessage.pdf\">Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Toronto Star <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>When the medium is the message <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Christopher Hutsul <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Once a means of communication only among the technologically elite, e-mail has become a big part of our social and business lives. But do we really know how and when to use it? Does the endless flood of spam burden us, or does its infinite connectivity empower us in wonderful ways?<\/p>\n<p>As society, we\u2019ve only had our mitts on the technology for half a decade. It has entrenched itself as a mode of interaction in our business and social lives, even though its nuances are sometimes poorly understood.<\/p>\n<p>Those who study communication think we need to log off for a while to consider the politics \u2013 and mechanics \u2013 of e-mail, for its rewards are tempered by pitfalls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a more passive form of communication, but it\u2019s got its own risks,\u201d says Christina Cavanagh, an e-mail expert and former professor of management communications at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat might be thought of you and your message if it\u2019s inappropriate?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat tends to happen in the workplace is that people can hit the send button, you\u2019ve got the thinking and emotion all at once. If you\u2019re not careful, then the message that comes across to the other might not be seen in the light you wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger Davies, CEO of McLuhan &amp; Davies Communications, a firm that specializes in communication-skills training, conducts programs for companies that want to educate staff about how to use e-mail effectively.<\/p>\n<p>Theoretically, he says, e-mail should enable us to carefully compose messages with the appropriate length, tone and structure, but that doesn\u2019t always happen in practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s too easy to respond quickly, in a conversational manner, and then press the send button,\u201d he says. \u201cYour answer is focused more than a voice message, or a discussion, because it is in writing. But the speed with which most of us respond to an e-mail sometimes means that thoughts are incomplete \u2013 with the added complication that the writing tone may not be appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cavanagh also believes e-mail is an ineffective means of communication for our personal lives. She doesn\u2019t believe a couple can form a bond electronically.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cE-mail is not going to establish a relationship,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat it\u2019s going to do is be an entry-point for people to get to know each other face-to-face. If you\u2019re really talking about building some kind of relationship, e-mail is only going to be there as a supplementary tool to the coffee, the meetings, the lunches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve talked to people who have long-distance relationships and they say e-mails are okay once in a while, but most people actually pick up the telephone. And why do they do that? They want to hear the voice. They want to be able to just be in a more human mode.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cavanagh even point to the theories of a pioneer of communications studies to burst email\u2019s bubble.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s Marshall McLuhan\u2019s notion that the medium is the message. If you\u2019re going to send an e-mail instead of picking up the telephone, that in itself transmits a message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davies says: \u201cThe main thing to bear in mind is that e-mail is an imperfect communication medium.\u201d \u201cIt lacks the human touch. Studies show that face-to-face communication is considered by far the best communication method. Because you can hear, see and read the body language for a more complete communication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are technically the most connected society in history,\u201d Davies says, \u201cbut we are also, at a human level, the most disconnected society in history. The challenge we all face is how to bridge that apparent contradiction. How do we add the human touch to offset the disadvantages of our communication technology?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 The Toronto Star 2004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download PDF The Toronto Star When the medium is the message By Christopher Hutsul Once a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-releases"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When the medium is the message - The Toronto Star - MDC Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When the medium is the message - The Toronto Star - MDC Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Download PDF The Toronto Star When the medium is the message By Christopher Hutsul Once a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MDC Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-11-05T16:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/When-the-medium-is-the-message-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sitemanager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sitemanager\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/\",\"name\":\"When the medium is the message - The Toronto Star - MDC Training\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/When-the-medium-is-the-message-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2004-11-05T16:07:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2004-11-05T16:07:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/879a9cfa83b40c7f0b0cac22de24f49c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/When-the-medium-is-the-message-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/When-the-medium-is-the-message-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Startup Business People Working on Laptop\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/when-the-tedium-is-the-message-the-toronto-star\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When the medium is the message &#8211; 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