The world can wait.

Is there a starting point in the way we communicate that allows two people to fundamentally understand one another? Or is there something inherently wrong with assuming that someone will automatically get what you’re saying?

The art of communication is perhaps the most difficult I’ve come across, and unlike other arts, it’s binary. Either you’re successful, or you’re not. Someone understands you, or they don’t. The phrase, ‘lost in translation’ is at play here.

Is it the responsibility of the communicator or the ‘communicatee’ to accept when things aren’t clear?

I write this because of a lack of communication, where the use of text messages in place of human conversation seem to be even more loaded, with emotion stripped bare, the black cursive on a white flood. In the twenty-first century, we expect this to replace the voice and the physical but it lacks emotion, feeling, consciousness. We can separate it easily from our own ethos.

It feels odd to me that we have discussions about the best way to communicate. It seems so obvious that the only way is in reality, not through screens where the onus is for one to ‘follow’. Social media is not a conversation, it’s a broadcast with faux mechanisms in place to pretend that true dialogue exists in an environment where people can be blocked for disagreeing, or for holding people to account, or for simply debating. It is hostile.

And yet most of you, those of you who decide to click through social media posts and spend a few precious moments reading my thoughts, have probably found this through channels of Twitter and Instagram. My entire creative existence is rooted firmly in modern communication channels, which then transcends back into reality. My measures of success are analytic rather than something less tangible, more human.

I am frustrated, that in this moment, we seem to be so accepting of the role social media channels play in our routine that we don’t take a step back to value the true human need – interaction with others.

So next time you visit a concert, post a photo on Instagram before the gig starts and then put your phone away and live in the moment. Next time you’re chatting with a friend, invite them for coffee or a pint, or dinner, instead of endless, faceless text messages. 

Because ultimately, the world can wait. It isn’t hanging on your every post, your every word or thought. But those close to you, they can’t wait – they won’t wait. Before long, they will be gone and you’ll be lost in a world yearning over likes and views in place of that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from seeing a familiar face that you haven’t seen in a while across the table.