💫 The Evolution of Communication-📞 OR why people DON'T CALL anymore
Hello, dear online travelers, the reason why people stopped calling is connected with the difference of perception between auditive and visual qualities. The exact facts are coming at the end. Let's start now from here->
I know all of you have been asking yourself time to time why most people stopped calling, or do so very seldom. I have been always interested in communication and the changes in human behavior. When friends spoke about that topic, I shared my thoughts and for most of them, it made sense. This is the reason why I decided to write about it. As new forms of technology emerge, our behavior and expectations of communication develope in sometimes positive, another time to extreme ways. People could wait months for a letter, a few days for an e-mail and maximum a day for a text message reply. The communication and all its dimensions bring also strong emotions.
There are four main places of communication: at home, at work, meeting friends, internet.
This work of mine was created in 2008 and was inspired by the amazing Russian-American avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren. I called it: I Never Knew You But I Miss You.
Our real mother native language is the non-verbal communication: body language and facial micro-expressions.
In our historical development of communication as created, not as natural means there were different stages:
- The petroglyphs (mages created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving)
- The pictograms (a symbol representing a concept, object, activity, place or event by illustration)
- Ideograms (pictograms evolved into ideograms, graphical symbols that represent an idea)
- The writing (The oldest forms we know about were mainly logographic or pictographic)
- The alphabet & languages
People always wanted to communicate. Some tribal cultures used smoke as a warning sign, others drums. The animals and plants also have their ways of communication and sending signals.
The letters were such an important way to communicate not only news but emotions too.
Later on, homing pigeons were a great way to send news. They are kind of domestic pigeons, which had a selective bred for the ability to fly very long distances and to find a way home to their owner.
Different communities around the world used and still use secret signals mostly based on body language and signs.
A then it finally came, the technology, the electricity, the electrical telegraph, the typing machine.
The technology gave us different ways not only to send simple information, but also to express what we feel, what is deep within us.
The next step was the telephone, AND that is the part I really want to point to. Suddenly there was a communicational side effect. Everyone has seen it time to time with themselves, but people did not really pay attention to it. ** Most of us would draw on paper**, just any random odd lines or simple drawings on anything which is nearby. Right? Do you remember this? But why? Because the **auditive **(hearing) and the visual layer (seeing) were separated. The communication works best if we have the two together, not separated. In the time when people used to write letters the expectation of a reply was very relaxed. With the phone everything got intense. The business and private aspects of life became faster and more intense.
The internet came and started a whole new level of development. To be honest I see only good things about the internet itself. It brought people together.
The cell phones came. No problem, they made our lives easier.
But then the smartphones came. Here I see a very strong duality of positive and negatives at the same time. Yes, there are google maps, WhatsApp, and other great tools, which made it easy to speak to anyone, anytime, anywhere around the world.
What are the bad sides, you might ask? Well, it brought social media into your pocket and not at the evening after work if you switch on your computer. Social media was totally fine before it was on a pocket-size device. We went back to the separation of auditive and visual elements of communication. In general women are more auditive creatures (we mostly like audiobooks, audio messages, don’t need light in the dark in romantic moments because his sexy voice is enough for the communication). Man, on the other hand, are different here as well, they are more visual, but mainly to what is in front of them (so they like the lights on). The modern communicational tools in your pocket gave us the illusion we know how others are doing based on social media or messaging behavior. That is my friends a total illusion. The only real way to truly know how a friend is doing is to meet up and spend quality time together. We use also the Jacobson organ, which is located in the nose and helps us really smell fear, danger, a lie, attractions, the gens of someone else. It cannot be replaced with anything else. For many years it was questionable how it works and if we really have it. I have spent a lot of time reading about it and truly believe in its functions and influence in our lives.
The sending and receiving wordless clues is a huge part of our communication and can be fully experienced only in person.
Through social media in your pocket we ended up with a fake feeling of being close to many, which was actually a step closer to isolation.
People are able to recall information much better when they have seen it.
Around 65% of the world’s population are visual learners, meaning they remember things better when they look at them over using any other sense.
This brings us back to my original point. The visual memory is stronger than the auditory memory. When we only listen, we miss the visual element, but when we see we don’t really miss the sound that much. This is the main reason why ever since people use smartphones the amount of calling others has been drastically reduced.
The so-called Millennials (The generation born after 2000) have strong issues with face to face communication. There have been studies done showing the rising of extrovert behavior, strong insecurities in personal communication.
What is the solution?
To chose quality over quantity. To remember to call and meet in person the lovely people you know as often as possible. If you are single stop wondering why online dating is driving you crazy. Marketing tests show when people have to choose between 3 articles, they will pick one, but the bigger the choice, the fewer humans are able to take any decision and don’t pick any. It all ends in an all you can eat buffet behavior without a sense or respect, commitment or simply proper kind behavior. Of course there are many happy cases, but the negative experiences are many
more.
Our technology will continue its fast journey. We should not just adjust to the flow of the masses, but observe, question, analyze and decide what is the best way for us.
It is the spirit of our time, fast, simple, with less respect, with less time investment, and all I can say is, I am doing my best to find and live in harmony with the good things from the past and those from the present. Hopefully you too;)
Thank you for your comments & upvotes.
With love & light
Bella
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Credits:
The first artwork is mine. I am working on a mural and don't have my hard drive at the moment. I had only a web resolution photo.
The photo with colorful river is also mine and from South Korea.
I ordered the last photo & the laptop one from shutterstock.
The other photos are royalty free images from this website: unsplash.com
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Hello, thank you. Of course, it is a pleasure.
Hey Bella,
great article. The use of the vomeronasal organ (or Jacobson's organ) by humans is actually highly disputed (for reference, see Witt & Hummel 2006, Wysocki & Preti 2004, Bhatnagar et al. 1987 or the book Pheromones and Animal Behaviour by Tristram D. Wyatt) - however, I agree with the rest: we should get away from our phones (and computers) to spend more quality time together. Many of us tend to neglect this, although it's actually good for us.
Hi;), well I have red very much about it, not online;). Articles written by doctors and biologists. I did not take the information from internet;). Have you seen the book by Lyall Watson: The Jacobson Organ and the remarkable nature of smell? I have been keeping a track on information about it for 20 years and also had personal talks with doctors who believe in it. As you know in science there are very often many different opinions.
True, opinions differ. (I mean, there are also some studies that still claim that climate change doesn't exist / isn't manmade.) However, I have to disagree: Science is never based upon belief, but upon empirical evidence. According to empirical evidence, at this stage of research - the papers I posted earlier are fairly recent and peer-reviewed - it seems highly unlikely that all humans have one and whether those that do still make use of it (this is also what is currently being taught at universities).
Currently it looks as though, to humans, the vomeronasal organ is about as useful as wisdom teeth ;-) It may have been useful as some point in our evolutionary history - but not any longer. If that is the case with a trait (whatever it is), we don't lose the trait instantly but rather lose it over extremely long periods of time. The trait or body part loses its functionality. (We biologists call this vestigiality.) Examples for this are the "legs" on some snakes (yes, they use to have legs - but they lost them at some point in evolution).
However, I agree that many non-human animals use the organ successfully. Examples would be snakes, cats, tapirs, goats, bison, or horses.
Well, dear Teodora, the book I mentioned is based on researches and not believes. There are also a few documentaries about it. I see you are very picky about the way I express my words. I agree you are the scientist, not me, but there are other scientists who wrote about it too speaking on the contrary. I just spend my free time with science books. I honestly don't like online discussions also when we both speak German is odd to me to write you in English. I hope you understant.
I don't intend to be picky as such - I just want to be sure we're talking about the same thing. I do agree it's easier to discuss everything (including science) offline over a glass of wine and in German :-)
And (this is very important to me): No offense was intended. My apologies if you feel offended! I like you as a person and appreciate talking to you very much.
Dear Theodora I am not offended. If this was on a post on my private facebook we can drop back and forth links with different experiments about it as much as we want to. Unfortunately, it is a blockchain, where nothing can be deleted. I wish I knew this in advance before I started here. I use my real name and I am so to say a public person with websites, google rankings and so on. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to skip long discussions on public posts. Thank you for the links, when I have more time will look at them.
great insights! I wonder where else the human path will lead to in the future, and how it will change us... it will be good after all - I am certain :)
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