Digital Anxiety

In the middle of a meeting, I check my cellphone and see that there are 14 missed calls.

I check my whatsapp and see 4 messages from the same person. And besides that, I’ve received during that same meeting one email and 2 SMS.

After those happenings, I thought it was time to write something about digital anxiety. That topic had already been theme of talks I had with professors Daniel and Ítalo during our lunch time at PUCSP, the university I work with.

In not so ancient times, we’ve depended on letters and the answer would take one week at least to return. Then, after came the telegraph, telephone, cellphone, and now, we have the integration of the digital communication tools in one device: the smartphones.

Everything has suffered from a revolution, but we, human beings, haven’t had a technological update and we have our same limitations.

Today, in any round of conversation, you can notice that everybody knows everything. We are creating knowledge through 144 characters. The hype of the moment is to know the last news that is not circulating around. Did we become superficial news consumers?

Besides those findings, we need good digital manners. Many people nowadays are unable to deeply reflect. They don’t follow the logic process of receiving the information, process and then, after that, make decisions. Many of them don’t deepen and end up giving superficial answers. The result reflects in those big quantities of renegotiations and rework in projects.

Doesn’t want to receive the annoying person title? So read the following about answer time expected:

– Between 24 to 48 hours

Send an email.

– Between 24 hours

Send a message through Whatsapp, Facebook or SMS.

– Emergency Communication

If your are in an emergency situation or you need an immediate answer, then call. But have good sense. If the person doesn’t answer the first call, send a message saying that you need her to call back as soon as possible.

Observation: if you need to talk about an opportunity, arrange a meeting through Hangout or Skype, if you cannot meet the person personally. And if you can, arrange time together during coffee, lunch, dinner time etc. Never use the cellphone or phone to have a business talk. The eye-to-eye contact, virtual or live, is indispensable.

:: Send your comments! It is a pleasure to answer them.