Are we losing the ability to converse?
Being able to maintain fluid and correct communication via WhatsApp or other instant messaging systems, are elements that have given us a certain freedom and at the same time requires little commitment at the conversational level. This can be a permanent conversation, although very different from the face-to-face one, since our attention and availability within it will vary. There are many people who say that talking in this way is like talking alone for hours.
One of the most challenging parts of linguistics is those that describe the different mechanisms that help regulate everyday conversations. When it comes to explaining how a conversation works, there are usually people who compare it to a dance. Since it can be like a choreography which will be rehearsed to infinity, for which the interlocutors will do everything possible to coordinate their actions in order to make the miracle of dialogue possible.
Conversations are not necessary in a unique way for children to learn to speak, but they are also implicit within the essence of our own and social nature that encompasses our species.
Human conversations, as a whole to understand each other
Experts have described in many ways the safest way in which human communications works, since they have a model which has been created in a cultural and determined way, which helps us regulate when to speak and when to be silent, how to ask and likewise, the correct moment in which to give the floor.
We learn all this from childhood, as one of the most important parts of the socialization process. However, there are some occasions in which small dysfunctions can be identified within the conversations which can de-coordinate said conversation.
Eternal digital conversations and on many occasions multiple
Within the digital age it has been seen that our communication capacity has no limits, so it is good that we remember the fact that each conversation works not only with a person who is our ears, but also with the one who wants to listen to us. For this, it is important that the interlocutors are always attentive and reciprocally available. We were hyperconnected and immersed in an eternal conversation which takes place in general terms in parallel and simultaneously within different devices and applications and that is precisely why our attention tends to be much more dispersed than ever.
It is important that we begin to meditate on the way in which technology has changed the way in which we communicate. The different consequences of digital culture have had a direct impact on our interpersonal relationships and the way in which they have made us communicate or get closer to others.
Chat in WhatsApp time
Beyond the value judgments, within many investigations on the socialization of the human being, questions have been asked about the influences of the applications that are destined to interpersonal communication. Speaking in the case of WhatsApp, it is interesting to see the irruption of emojis or stickers, to replace the position of words or emotions that are expressed with the written text, as well as the incorporation of audio messages.
Each of these changes have been incorporated into our various routines, tastes and moods, which have also been received with great surprise and even controversy.
WhatsApp messages, in general, present us with a challenge in which we feel in one way or another, the absence of our interlocutor, which can limit us in terms of the operation of the different basic principles of the so-called communicative interaction..
Based on all this, what is the reason why we use instant messaging so commonly? According to some people, WhatsApp has become an efficient alternative which is only possible in very specific situations and contexts, since for other people, this is not a substitute option, but of a priority nature.