The numerous ways we communicate in today's society

When I visited my father for Thanksgiving, the topic of cell phones came up (don't remember why). Basically my father does not like cell phones. He likes the ability to be unreachable (forget the fact that one does not need to answer their cell phone or can even turn it off when they don't want to be reached). But just having the option of being reachable when not at home does not sit well with him, which is fine.

But then there are teenagers. While people of my generation are big email users, most kids today don't even use email. They prefer IMs or SMS to communicate. There has ended up this huge disparity between the generations in terms of what forms of communication they use. This reflection upon communication methods has led to me thinking about the various ways we communicate today and what each approach offers in terms of pros and cons.

First and foremost, there is mail (often called snail mail by people who have grasped life in the digital world). Writing something on a piece of paper and having someone deliver it for you is probably one of the oldest versions of long distance communication. But it is also the slowest, most wasteful, and most costly form of communication. It requires the use of paper on top of the energy to get that physical piece of communication from point A to point B. And the cost of a postage stamp is exorbitant compared to all other forms of communication I am going to discuss. Plus you have to physically go somewhere to mail the thing (unless you happen to have postage already handy).

Why even use snail mail with all of these drawbacks? Well, it is because of these drawbacks that snail mail gains its draw. For one, snail mail allows the receiver to have something material. Digital communication lacks the tactical feel of having something you can hold and say "I got this from my son the other day". The inconvenience also shows that you cared enough to go through the whole rigamarole of mailing something. This is why both of my parents prefer getting cards on holidays or as thank you letters from people.

There is also the fact that snail mail is asynchronous; the receiver does not need to be available when the sender is in order for the communication to occur. That adds a nice piece of convenience, albeit at the price of having rather delayed communication.

Next comes the phone. The great thing about this old standby is you actually get to hear the person. This means you don't have to guess at subtle innuendo over what someone meant because you couldn't hear the inflection in their voice. It also allows for the fastest form of communication.

But it is a synchronous form of communication. Granted there is voice mail, but that detracts from the usefulness of making a phone call. Plus voice mail requires more effort than other forms of asynchronous communication. Lastly, a phone call can be expensive if you don't happen to have the right phone plan or live in a certain geographic location relative to the caller.

That brings us to the first great digital communication tool: email. Just like a letter, it is asynchronous. But unlike snail mail it is cheap, fast, and convenient. Plus with the CC/BCC fields in emails you can easily send the same message to a large number of people. And being digital means you can get to your emails from anywhere you have an Internet connection (that is a lot more places than just your house for snail mail =).

But while email is asynchronous, it can take a little while to get delivered. And even if it is delivered, you have to wait until someone checks their email to get a response. That brings us to SMS. Sending a text message to someone's phone is asynchronous, but has a much higher chance (at least with people I know) of being read before an email is. While there is a length restriction of 160 characters, it is still enough to get the message across. And you also get the broadcast option like email. Depending on your cell phone plan, though, it does cost more than an email.

But what if you want to talk to the person right now? IM fills in that gap nicely. Completely free and instantaneous, it steps in to fulfill the digital role of the phone call. While there is not necessarily a way to leave or broadcast a message, it is made up for by knowing whether the person who wish to talk to is even available to talk. You get to make a judgment call as to whether they are up to talking in the first place. All of the other forms of communication don't give you that ability.

Five different ways of communicating in today's world. How do you choose which one to use? If talking to the person only matters if they are available to talk, then IM is the best. SMS is great if you need to broadcast to a bunch of people the same thing and want them to get the message ASAP. Email serves a slower purpose than SMS; when you want to send a message but are in no rush for a response. Phone calls are best when you want to talk to the person directly but they are not on IM or you specifically want to hear the person's voice. Lastly, snail mail is for those instances where the effort to mail something is worth it.