By Jenny Littlewood, Director, Client Strategy
You may have seen the column by Meghan Daum in The Age earlier this month (16 March 2010) reporting on a study by researchers from Washington University and the University of Arizona that found a correlation between feelings of well-being and the amount of time spent talking every day.
It reminded me of a flatmate in London, orginally from Ireland, who would ring her mother every night without fail and talk for at least an hour. At the time I used to think ‘what can she be talking about?’ and ‘when will she get off the phone so I can use it?’ but looking back I’m sure it was a coping mechanism for homesickness – talking to her Mum made her feel better.
Today, of course, my former flatmate would have a myriad of ways she could communicate with her mother: Skype, SMS, email, twitter, to name just a few. The online ‘chatter’ is becoming deafening with 35 million facebook users updating their status every day and more than 5 billion pieces of content shared each week.
The world is alive with ‘conversation’ but I can’t help wondering if a study was carried out between feelings of well-being and the amount of time spent chatting online would it produce the same results?
Yes, I acknowledge that as communicators we can’t ignore the social media phenomenon as a channel for our messages, but when it comes to building rapport, listening and empathising, you can’t underestimate a ‘real’ conversation – ideally face-to-face.
