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In the Sunday Blog post “The Power of Voice in a Digital World”, I brought up a point that voice is a more human way to connect and provided several examples and research of how that is the case. Let’s say you’re convinced that voice is a powerful engine of humanizing our digital interactions.
So what?
Why does it matter if my interactions online are humanized or not? Why does it matter if I can hear the emotions of others? Why do I want them to hear mine? I get enough humanization in my real life, can’t I just keep my digital presence as unhumanized as possible?
To answer these questions, let’s assess our online interactions. They come in many forms:
- Some are one-way (one person sending a message, all others receiving it). Some are multi-way (people sending messages back and forth).
- Some are short. Some are long.
- Some are with strangers. Some are with people we know.
- Some have one purpose. Some have another purpose.
I’m not saying every form of online engagement necessitates the use of voice. Rather, the nature of the interaction informs where voice can play a beneficial role. And that leads us to what those benefits are. The more humanized your digital interaction is, the more likely you are to
- Communicate your message effectively.
- Build relationships with others.
- Reduce feelings of isolation and improve your mental health.
- Focus on what’s real versus the filtered/idealized.
- Share and absorb ideas.
So why does it matter? Because in a digital realm where trends expire in days and everyone and their dog is off traveling the world, humanization reminds us that even our digital personas need to be grounded in reality. It’s easy to float in a never-ending stream of memes or lose ourselves to the anonymity of the comments section. But every now and then, and especially in times when our in-person lives leave us emotionally lacking, finding a space online that welcomes us with the most tangible of arms is a sweet thing to have.
Tuesday Deep Dive is a series where we discuss in more detail a specific point made in the previous Sunday Blog.