Innocent Until Proven Guilty
When it comes to
communicating through social media and digital platforms one of the hardest
things to do is interpret a person’s intent. When you’re communicating face to
face you’re able to respond to the body language, facial expression and tone of
the other person throughout the conversation. On social media however, our cues
consist of text and an occasional emoji. So what do we do when we’re faced with
a questionable comment and we aren’t sure how to respond?
Guy Kawasaki and
Peg Fitzpatrick, the authors of “The Art of Social Media,” believe that as
social media and digital communicators we should always assume people are good
until proven bad. It’s easy to misinterpret a sarcastic joke as criticism or an
innocent remark as an attack. Giving people the benefit of the doubt isn’t
always easy but on social media platforms, its necessary. The next time you
receive a debatable text, comment or tweet take a moment to consider the platform,
consider their motives and consider the outcome.
I completely agree. It is so hard to understand what the person's intention is in a message if it's online or over text. Giving them the benefit of the doubt is one of the best ways to avoid sticky situations. People seem to sometimes forget that face to face interaction is the best way to fully communicate with someone, and should be done whenever possible! With social media, these are points to keep in mind. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteI hate that nowadays people use texts and email to communicate. By doing this it takes days or even weeks to resolve a conflict or get an answer. When I need information right away my go to is face-to-face or calling because all loose ends can usually be fixed in a matter of minutes. Like Kawasaki said by not using face-to-face technique we can easily interpret the wrong meaning.
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