If You Cannot Convince, then Distract!

50,000!!! That’s the number of thoughts per day that a human processes in its brain. Perhaps some may be repetitive and the average is 0.5 thoughts per second. Incredible!  This tiny brain that weighs around 3 pounds and has 75% water boasts of processing 50000 thoughts per day. I am not going to dissect the anatomy and the science behind the brain functioning here.  But, delve in to how information has overloaded the brain and distracts the mind. 

Roti, Kapada, Makaan (Food, Clothing , Shelter) has been the basic necessities of life. Adding to these necessities, there are many other things like TV, Web, apps, social networks, gadgets, mobile phones and many other things.  It is this addition of things to life that has made life sometimes feel miserable and sometimes feel connected.  Take the example of a news channel on TV, the news screen has at least 5 varieties of information and goes up to 10. The information includes Time, Channel Name, Breaking News, Just in News, Top Story, tickers that scrolls the news, important news schedule and stock prices and so on and so forth. The main news that the anchor is presenting is surrounded by these many information and your eyes and mind is always looking for additional information on the screen without your knowledge.

Let us look at the information on a social network site.  When you login to your page, you have recommended friends, the wall, trending topic, the news feed, sponsored ads, the groups, the pages etc. From an era of searching the information we have moved to an era of scrolling for information on these social networking sites. Amidst the scrolling, there is humongous amount of information that distracts you and deflects your purpose of visiting the site.

Let’s move to email. The relevant mail is not to be seen at all. You need to dig out the relevant mail amidst the marketing mails all around. New features are accommodated in mail boxes like social, updates, automated unsubscribe etc.  A recent article by muHive mentions the use of emails for marketing purpose is less useful.  But still people thrive on mass marketing whether it’s useful to the person or not. I just hate to see more ads or marketing mails in my mail box then real mails. 

Duplicity of information is another nuisance. The same information is posted on every other social network. Visit any site or blog there is an option, share on Facebook, twitter, pinterest, googleplus, and some pages have buttons from almost all social networks on the earth where you can share. And, it is quite annoying to read the same information since everyone is on every other social network. People share information that I have shared X information on Y network so please check. Irritating? The mantra is simple, push the information anywhere and everywhere because it’s easy and cost is almost zero!  It was interesting to see the purpose of social networks to connect people. Now, it has moved on to make people consume all sorts of information whether they like it or not. Another nuisance from these social networks is, automatically your profile gets created without even your knowledge! This is insane and furious!

The number of online accounts with separate credentials easily goes over 50 accounts for an individual. Managing this information is itself quite challenging. With the enormous amount of data that is generated on different mediums, the eyeballs that  screens through information easily surpasses over the number of thoughts per second which in turn means the brain has to process at a speed faster than the speed of thought. This is quite impossible and leads to deviate from your original thoughts.

Even Arjuna, hit the fish eye with his bow and arrow by looking at the reflection in water, would find it hard to navigate through the information. Earlier, we used to search for information, now information is being delivered to you whether you like it or not. The marketing personnel are going with the strategy of pushing the information with the motto, 'if you cannot convince, then distract' . For the user Call it information Overload, Redundant Information, people will be ignorant about Information and we are entering in to Information Ignorant World which can also be called as Attention Deficit Disorder :)

Communication Conundrum

It was a bright sunny day, the sky was clear, the crowd was very enthusiastic and it was a full packed house. This is not about the cricket match, but it was a lecture hall meant for a Guest lecture by one of the leading HR Professional from an MNC.  The talk was meant for graduating students focusing on their soft skills, preparation for interviews, personality development etc. Little did we realize the importance of these skills then, but I do realize that these are most sought out skills in the industry. Among these, one of the most important topics that covered was communication. 

Imagine a communication with a kid, it starts like 'ali-lee-lee, ali-lee-lee' :). As the kid grows, communicating to the child changes and as the kid becomes an adult, parents ought to treat them like a friend and communicate in a different way. Communication is contextual; it is quite different in a business set up, professional set up, friends, family and depends on each individual based on their behaviour. Communication is a part and parcel of a daily life and 80% of the time it is the communication that leads to effective business, ideas or requirements that helps to design a system. 

Communication has transformed enormously in the recent decades. The change has been so drastic that it has created communication gaps like generation gaps. The older generation is unable to adept to newer form of communications that technology has created.

In the olden days, if someone was about to invade the kingdom, fire used to be the form of communication indicating the threat. Pigeons were trained to pass on the information. These forms of communication are history, thanks to the invention of telegraph and telephone. 

'XYZ serious, start immediately'. ('XYZ might be dead as well that wouldn't have been communicated') This is not an SMS but this is how a telegram used to be sent and delivered by the postal department. And the concerned kin used to travel to the destined place. Telegrams were used in the military for sending coded information. Though most of us are not using telegram, it exits. (IndianExpress). It appears that it will become extinct soon. (LiveMint-1 LiveMint-2)

Later, telephone revolutionized communication and reduced the distance among people. If computer was the wheel, then web is the vehicle that carries the information instantaneously. With the advent of the social networks, you know who has checked in where, what is their location, which restaurant they are in. You also know if someone has run away and got married :). You can even find kumbh mele mein bichade hue bhai etc. etc. Without the use of telephone, web and social networks business seems to be impossible. No doubt these technologies have almost killed the post, fax and telegram.

No one can deny that technology has advanced and has made the information accessible instantaneously. It has also created a vast number of mediums or channels to communicate. Take for example,

• Product or Service: If I need to report a complaint about a product or service, the mediums that are available are email, online, customer care, social networks like twitter, Facebook where companies like flipkart are leveraging to its best. But, for example, recently I had an issue with a nationalized bank about an ATM card and I lodged a complained through email. Apparently, the issue was closed without even my knowledge but the issue still existed. I even tried toll free number; they redirected me to the branch. After commuting to the branch thrice it got sorted out.

• Office: At office, the professional means of communication are email, Skype, chat, phone or be present physically to present the ideas.  Under different scenarios each of the tools needs be used effectively. If by chance you use phone over chat or email that may not be appreciated. Knowing when to use what is an art in itself. Also, you need to be worried about whom all needs to be addressed in an email and who all needs to be out. Also, whom to put in 'CC 'and whom to put in 'To'! These are never taught in any school and its learnt only hard way!

• Individuals: If you are meeting a doctor, he or she may prefer only face to face communication and any communication over phone or email is outright rejected. Each individual may prefer their own way of communicating.

• Rumours: If there is any news that is prominent, then suddenly there is a reaction over the social networks and sometimes it leads to rumours’. I remember the 26/11, it was said that terrorists are absconding in to the city.  There are cases of false deaths about famous celebrities and they come alive to prove their mere existence. It just creates confusion and you really do not know how to react!

No doubt communication medium has been a spoiler but it’s playing a double edged sword, for example

• Traffic Control: With the enormous increase in traffic, the earlier mode of communicating to traffic by the traffic police by hand signals was given a significant boost with the advent of automated traffic signals. With the ever increase in traffic, things would have been disastrous without the traffic signal.

• Banking:  The scenario mentioned earlier might get resolved. Internet banking has made obsolete the visit to a branch. You can transfer amount to any one online.

• Products Purchase: Almost every company is on the web selling their product and has made your life easy by giving you the option of purchasing the item online.

• Education : There are courses available online from renowned universities and one can educate oneself by registering online and taking up the course for example : Coursera

Likewise there are many innumerable instances where web has played a prominent role to make life easier but the underlying communication conundrum is increasing due to increase in the number of communicating channels. The same information might be present in different channels and the data is exploding exponentially, and the phenomenon called 'Big Data'. 

Businesses are thriving on these communication channels and the world has become small. Due to these channels, people across countries are connected and the barrier of language is no longer a challenge.

People are working on solving the challenges pertaining to Big Data and have evolved with several solutions. From an individual perspective, I wonder if there is a need to consolidate the number of communication mediums and use for example only virtual medium. But, I don't think if consolidation of communication medium would ever take place and there shall be only increase in the number of channels.

The conundrum shall always remain as the saying goes if you cannot convince, confuse!