Suppose the year is 1990, and you have some big news to share with those close to you and the world in general. How can you do it? There are a few ways:
- In person
- Over the phone
- In a mailed letter
- Through a printed announcement (say, in a newspaper)
Fast forward to today, a mere 20 years later. How much has changed? In addition to the ways mentioned above, look at all the new tools we have:
- Voice chat (Skype, Google Voice)
- Video conference (Skype, iChat)
- Instant message (from any number of clients)
- Text message (or MMS)
- Facebook (status update, wall post, private message)
- Twitter (tweet, @someone, DM)
- Blog post
And this is just what I used on Monday; there are many others. We’re more connected than ever before. We can reach more people, faster, through whatever means is convenient for them, and the list of applicable technologies just keeps growing. It’s incredible!
A brief take-away
Monday reminded me how many tools there are for spreading messages that I don’t normally use, and made me realize that sometimes I have to look outside of my usual channels to reach people in a way that is most effective to them. I’m sure there are other things I will think of over the next little while that I can communicate more efficiently using tools other than my defaults; perhaps the same is true for you?