Early evolutionary evidence suggests that perhaps our hominid ancestors did not have the power of speech. They presumably communicated via animal-like sounds, gestures and a fair amount of pushing and shoving. This meant that communication had to be pretty basic, abbreviated and cover the essentials. “Come here”, “eat this”, “don’t do that”, “watch out” were about as in depth as messages could be. Deep love may be communicated with a hug and hatred with a club to the head.
As the voice box and speech developed so did our powers of communication. We expressed ourselves beyond essentials; we were able to use subtleties, consider and give voice to emotions and abstract notions and have conversations. The written word brought with it a rising of the use of language into an art form as carefully crafted words made communication beautiful, meaningful and full of depth.
The invention of the printing press allowed for these messages to be accessible to the masses and as more people learnt to read so their respective language skills were improved and refined. We digested and interpreted messages, painted pictures with words and expressed complex issues via metaphor and analogies.
Receivers of communication were able to learn the skill of interpretation, often deciphering the deeper meaning of the words, the hidden meanings, as well as what was on the page. Conversations and interactions were face to face so body language, tone of voice and volume could add to the rich mix of what constitutes communication.
And still we evolved. Postal delivery services allowed for individuals to communicate across geographical space. Carefully crafted letters, making use of precious resources brought people closer across the miles. Handwritten letters kept people informed of each other’s lives and they were often treasured for years.
So to today, at the supposed pinnacle of our evolutionary development, the communication industry is one of the fastest growing, prevalent and populated industries globally.
We now receive so many messages on a daily basis that the human brain has had to develop blinkering mechanisms as a way to deal with the influx, allowing only pertinent and relevant messages through and filtering out the rest. We have more mediums with which to communicate than history could ever conceive of and we can use most of them simultaneously, for example sitting in a meeting talking to people, while texting on our phones or having a Skype chat with a colleague in another city and opening e-mails.
So we have become true masters of communication, and have turned it into an art. Or have we?
We now have so many opportunities, demands and channels with which to communicate but still only the same number of hours in a day. So to cope, we edit, abbreviate and become more functional. Messages are short, snappy and to the point. Attention spans have become abbreviated accordingly, anything beyond the 140 character limit reads as drivel and unnecessary. So what are our topics now at the height of the communication explosion? Pretty much “come here”, “eat this”, “don’t do that”, “watch out”, (.) equates to a hug and :( is the modern-day version of a club to the head.
We really have come a long way!