Back to the conversation

I had a really random thought this afternoon about how socialising has changed over the years.

Phone calls got replaced with text. Text morphed into tweets, direct messages, status updates and replies.

It occurred to me that most of my day-to-day interactions happen through my keyboard. Aside from when I'm at home or work, I barely speak to anyone.

It's quick to communicate through digital platforms but are we losing some of our personality? "Lol", ironically, has no expression at all. Even this very blog post doesn't escape. You're reading words that I type, from my head to my hands to the page, but you get no real impression of me, the person behind it.

I've noticed some people I follow have started blogcasting, which not only adds another way for readers to consume content, it allows us to hear the thoughts of the creator in their own voice which immediately adds personality.

Throw into the mix services like Anchor, we're starting to see a resurgence of conversation in the traditional sense.

I'm really keen to start using Anchor but I have a bit of a complex about my own voice being recorded. One day I hope to just bite the bullet and go for it. I want to get involved with these conversations.

The same goes for my personal life. I've got so used to typing as a form of communication that I now actively avoid talking on the phone if I can help it (with the exception of a handful of people). I want to regain some of the personality of the person on the other end, make that connection.

When I see something on Twitter or Facebook I want to react to, rather than just liking or tweeting, I'm going to try give someone a call. Even if it's just for five minutes.

Of course, it would be impossible to do this with everything but even if a few times a week I can make a call to someone and really speak to them, there's something more meaningful there than just clicking and tapping.

Let's start conversations again.