Email, social networks, instant messengers: What does the media influence and how to choose them

In our blog, we write a lot about creating emails and working with e-mail. We have already discussed the complexity of the fight against spam , the future of email , the protection of postal correspondence , and the creation of email auto-responses from support services.

Today we will talk about the impact of communication tools and how to choose them (especially in the case of business communication). An interesting article on this topic on his Medium blog was written by Ben Mathes, an engineer and employee of many American startups. We present to you the main thoughts of this article.
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Communication is very important.

Among the best programmers there is an opinion that the main element of the software is its architecture. Architecture means not the structure of the code, but how much the software corresponds to the way of thinking and how it limits it, writes Matez.
Especially important is the software that people use to communicate with each other. Social spaces are rapidly becoming digital. Social networks affect the way we communicate, the engineer is sure.

So, for example, on the 4chan forum, people are not at all discussing what's on Facebook, and the conversations of your colleagues in the Slack chat are quite different from their correspondence in email.

Mitch Kapo r talked about this back in the 90s:

The limits of our capabilities depend on the structure of the social network and the manner of our communication .

John Lilly (John Lilly) touched on this topic during his speech at the Code for America summit in 2014:



The means of communication influence the manner and style of our communication, and sometimes completely determine the topics of our discussions. Often they prescribe what we can say and what not. We can't talk to CNN's political observer, but we can contact Barack Obama on Twitter.

Means of communication and politics

In the Mitch Kapor quote, there was originally another suggestion. If you put it back in its place, the statement takes on a completely different meaning.

Architecture is politics . The limits of our capabilities depend on the structure of the social network and the manner of our communication.

This has enormous social consequences.

As an example, we can take a discussion of the conflict that flared up in the American city of Ferguson ( #Ferguson #BlackLivesMatter ). Television channels, in particular CNN, are broadcast media. When covering the events in Ferguson, CNN tried to justify the behavior of the guardians of the rule of law, stressing that the police were only trying to contain the riots of the demonstrators. In this case, a narrow circle of people controls what the masses see. And Twitter is a group broadcasting tool that is controlled by the masses themselves. The difference, though small, is significant.

Ev Williams did not accidentally give the blog platform he created the name Medium, which in English means "mediator". Medium has a simple and attractive user interface, but with a very thoughtful architecture. The main idea of ​​the service is the interaction of people.

For what purpose email is best suited

So if the media is so important, then why do we always use only e-mail, Matez asks. E-mail is an amazing communication tool with a wealth of merit, the most important of which is ubiquity. It is popular because it is widespread. Sending emails makes sense when communicating with the outside world (clients, consultants, and other people outside the office). But as for communication within the organization? Communicating with people you work with every day?

With all the advantages of e-mail, the engineer is confident that this tool is not ideal for use in communications in teams and within the company.

How do you negotiate who works on what? How do you know about the timing of assignments? How do you decide who will process the results? How do you figure out what people do every day, every week, every month? If you use e-mail to solve all these issues, then you force all employees to keep all this information in mind or put it in tables. As a result, there is a risk of losing important data or forgetting something.

According to Matez, you need to ask yourself the question of what goal is pursued in the case of a specific type of communication. After their determination, it will be easier to find tools that are better suited for this case.

• Prompt and timely execution of tasks - you can discuss this in real time in chat rooms like IRC or Slack.
• Refinement and correction of inconsistencies - there are many tools for collectively editing Quip documents.
• Accounting and analysis - for this there is CRM, as well as services for project management Pivotal and Trello.

The communication tool determines which types of interaction with interlocutors can be carried out, and which ones are not, and more and more often it depends on this interaction whether you can do your work.



Communication before the invention of the Internet / Communication now

Why email is so popular

The medium of communication is chosen by a person with more power. According to Peter’s principle, people tend to continue to use an already proven idea, technology, or thing in changed conditions, even going beyond the permissible limits of applying this idea, technology or thing.

In other words, you are forced to use e-mail because your boss uses it, writes Matez. In this case, this communication tool in a particular case may not be the ideal choice.

If you want to meet with friends more than they want to meet with you, then you have to adapt and choose a place that is more convenient for them.

In fairness it should be noted that this principle also works for managers. They have to adapt to their customers, so successful marketing includes not only internal document circulation, but external communications (email marketing, billboards, etc.).
Email is a common means of communication, which is great. It can be very useful, but for the daily professional activity in modern conditions it may not be enough.

The main adviser of Matez, concerning the choice of means of business communication within the company, is as follows:

If you have the authority to choose a communication tool for your team, then make this choice consciously. And if you do not have time for this, then let your team make the choice on their own. But do not forget that in this case, you also have to use the means of communication that your employees have chosen.