Computer mediated communication vs Face to face communication

Computer mediated communication vs Face to face communication

Nowadays people are connected with modern technology such as smart phone, iPad and tablets. People rely too heavily on the convenience of emails, text messages, and social media. We cannot deny the importance of these technologies and how they have revolutionized our communication. How would people being with these existing devices?

Computer – mediated communication (CMC) is a process in which human data interaction occurs through one or more networked telecommunication systems. A CMC interaction occurs through various types of networking technology software such as email, Facebook, instant messaging (IM) and so on so forth.

Besides that, face to face communication can be defined as communication when the communicator transmits his message in person to the receiver in person verbally and even non-verbally. There are many types of face to face communication such as:

1.      Interviews

2.      Meetings

3.      Conferences

4.      Seminars

5.      Workshops

6.      Classroom lectures

7.      Stage-acting

8.      Public lectures, etc.

However, CMC and face to face communication have its pros and cons as well. First of all, CMC technology saves time and money as we can send our messages in a quick way and globally. We are not necessary to reach to the destination just to send our messages to the people. However, CMC is lack of interpretation due to the absence of verbal communication. People may misinterpret the messages because of it.  

Face to face communication can boost efficiency of work instead of bouncing back emails for an entire day. We can find the solution and discuss the details when we are in face to face communication. In fact, it is over 90% of our communication is through nonverbal communication such as body gestures and face expression. According to Dr.Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford said that a basic human ability is reading one another’s faces, which helps people deal with confrontation and conflict in an immediate and healthy way. We can directly see their face expression and body gestures when they are delivering their messages to us. However, if the problem did not solve properly, it may also cause misinterpretation within people as well.

Consequently, both CMC and face to face communication is essential in our life in delivering the messages to others. However, we have to balance the use of them based on the situation and also the limitation.