The medium is the message (communicating in a meaningful way)
Marshall McLuhan, a famous Canadian professor, shared a concept: The medium is the message.
This is a complex idea, but simply put, it suggests that the way a message is sent is as important, if not more important, than the actual message itself.
Take someone's birthday, for example.
When you log into Facebook, and you see that one of your friends is having a birthday, you have a few options of how you can respond.
You can click on the birthday notification and a little box will pop up (assuming you're on desktop) that looks like this:
You can type in that box and write a message to your friend: "Happy Birthday, Nick."
Your friend Nick will see the message, but likely won't remember it since 100 other people did the exact same thing.
By clicking the mouse two more times (first, on Nick's name, and then on "message") and typing the exact same message: "Happy Birthday, Nick," you've instantly sent a more meaningful message. Now you're not one of 100 people sending Nick a timeline post; rather, you're one of maybe five or 10 people who chose to send Nick a direct message through Facebook Messenger.
Or—here's a crazy idea—you get right out of Facebook. You pick up your phone and you click on Nick's name in your contacts list and you send Nick a text message. Or, crazier yet, you phone Nick and have an actual voice conversation with him. Or you write him a letter.
The actual message doesn't need to change, it can always be, "Happy Birthday, Nick." But the way you're delivering the message (the medium) changes and, therefore, has a more meaningful impact on the people you're reaching out to.
If you don't believe me, I'd challenge you to write a letter to someone you haven't spoken to in a while. Find out their address, and sit down one night and write down a message to them using a pen and piece of paper. I think you'll be surprised how much it will mean to the individual you're writing the letter to.
In a fast-paced world that is quickly evolving with technological advancements, sometimes it's nice to take a step back and connect on a deeper level.
Me and my girlfriend are writing letters to each other like once a month and everytime you read something that was handwritten just feels way better that looking at your screen - you can feel, that someone put in the efffort into it
The pen is mightier than the sword. And, perhaps, the keyboard.
Yes.
Another idea would be leaving the text and word medium behind completely, as you hinted at in calling Nick :)
If Nick means a lot to ya, you can bake him a cake the day prior, or get him tickets to his favorite concert. The word-content of the message becomes both irrelevant and yet clearly understood, because it is implied.
The message is often bound to the intent, not to the words we commonly use - as your article illustrates rather well.
The more you can choose a gift to his liking, the more loud the message will come across to him without you having to say or write anything.
Maybe except for: "Here, I baked you this language-transcending cake of intent." ;)
It's a good idea, but I'm probably the worst "baker" there is, so my attempt at baking Nick a cake might actually be insulting to Nick ;)
Ahahaha me to unfortunately.
Knowing your skills and delegating tasks when needed, right?^^
Yup!