English: there is communication gap in humans but its always pefect in such insects- without wires fire ants communicating with each other (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
THE POWER OF WORDS
Words have always been very interesting to me. The way they sound, their definitions, the way they describe things, even the way they look on paper. We use words to communicate. I know that sounds obvious but think about it. Words are used to convey a feeling, explain, inspire, inform, persuade, instruct, describe, express, the list goes on and on. And sometimes, and this is what I really dislike about words, there are times words can cause alot of damage. Not to over use an old cliché, but did you ever wish you could “eat“your words? Whether words are spoken or written once those words are heard or read – you can’t take them back. That’s pretty serious. I am sure I am not alone when I tell you how many times I wished I had never let words come out of my mouth. For some of us this is a particularly difficult task. How about the saying, “Think before you speak”! Ever said to yourself, “If I had only thought through what I was going to say before I said it. If I had only paused for even just a moment and given those words some more thought about what the outcome would be. If only ….
Communication (Photo credit: P Shanks)
THE USE OF THE WRITTEN WORD IN THE OLD DAYS . . .
Before you read the next words, please know that I am not against the progression of the technology in communication. And I am really not ancient, but I remember a time in which hours might be put into a letter before it was actually delivered to someone, especially in business. The manager would spend time thinking about the message he wanted to convey, taking the person to whom he would be delivering this letter into consideration. Now we call it studying the demographics of the person or people to whom we are sending out these words. We would want to “speak their language”. And most times we would want to convey professionalism. So the manager would write or dictate what he wanted to say. I would type it out in a rough draft, double spaced. He/she would reread his words and usually make some revisions. I would type it again, careful to not make any errors in grammar, punctuation and God forbid, NO TYPOS! Because back then you were using a thing called a typewriter! Some of you may have never used one. But if you made a mistake often times you would have to type the document all over again! Sometimes this letter or document would be typed several times over and reviewed by more than one person before it was even mailed out! This written form of communication was more than just words on paper. It was many times the recipients first impression of your business. There are still times written communication or documents have this much thought and time put into them, but not much anymore. Typo’s who cares. It’s not my fault spell check didn’t catch it, besides most of the written communication I see from the other person has typo’s and abbreviations and often times spell check picks a word you never intended to use! There very possibly will be typo’s on this webpage. Shame on me. I have a Communications and Journalism Degree I should know better than to just spit something out on the computer without checking it over a few times. But hey, who has the time for that now?
It is great that these days so much time is saved by the latest technology. But sometimes there are negative effects to the speed in which we send out our words….
And sometimes we must keep our words to ourselves.
Tell us about times you wish you would’ve kept your words to yourself on the Thoughts Page.
Nicole Sheldon
