Real Talk: The Science of Human Communication
In a world of rapidly changing communication technology, humans have more options than ever for connecting with others. Having an intimate and authentic conversation requires many things, like effectively articulating one’s own opinions, thoughtfully consuming the other ...
In a world of rapidly changing communication technology, humans have more options than ever for connecting with others. Having an intimate and authentic conversation requires many things, like effectively articulating one’s own opinions, thoughtfully consuming the other person’s opinions, correcting each other’s misconceptions, indicating mutual understanding to progress more deeply on a topic, and so on. But many recent communication technologies do not maximize such conversational requirements for enhancing intimacy and understanding, instead prioritizing breadth, convenience, and even distance. For instance, in-person conversation is particularly well-suited to achieve intimacy but other forms of communication—such as leaving asynchronous messages on each other’s Facebook walls—are ill-suited for intimacy. This talk reviews the latest science on communication technology and provides insight into how communicate more effectively.