Pressure's always on when rolling backwards

I am inclined to think the vast majority of reading and writing done by people in the business of communicating falls within the frame of a window belonging to an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird. If we had to go a little further, it might even be worthwhile suggesting that most people who have a reasonable amount of access to computers and the Internet do a considerable amount of email reading and writing. Think about those endless gmail threads on any given workday with either bored or chatty friends stationed at other workdesks in different companies, firms or agencies... and that excuse to knock off the first forty five minutes at work every day.

What's more is that we expand our literacy, or lack thereof, communicating on social media platforms that not only serve as vents for workplace angst, relationship troubles or baby daddy issues, but also operate on the fundamentals of electronic mail. Reading friends' status updates in our Facebook news feeds is as entertaining, informative or tactical in the time-wasting game as receiving daily newsletters, RSS feeds or updates from the plethora of so-called established news and information services.

Social media platforms have, in this sense, become the primary facilitators of most communication whether it be as inane as sharing with others what you did over the weekend, or as earth shattering as breaking the news - via Twitter - of Princess Diana's return from the island where 2Pac and Hansie Cronje live.

Based on this, what seems evident is that electronic communication defines a large part of the humanity of the workplace not only because people share minutiae of their lives online while they are at work, but also because they do so in ways they perceive as expressive of their emotions given the limitations of the sharing medium. That makes everyone, from the PA or admin clerk to the director or CEO at any organisation complicit in this game of communication and indeed social media.

In other words, it might be worth everyone's while to view social media the same way we view email, fax, cellphones, telephones or postage stamps. It's here, we have to use it whether we like it or not, so I guess we must come to terms with it and start using it in ways that suit us best.

Yours after a great weekend,
Ahmed Patel