Tea & Toast: Digital Body Language

Digital body language: a new language that we've all been learning and (hopefully) becoming more fluent in.

We're taught implicitly and explicitly what good verbal and in-person communication looks like from the time we're old enough to talk. But, in her book Digital Body Language, Erica Dharwin argues, "today we're all 'immigrants' learning a new culture and language, except this time it's in the digital space...You see, these days, we don't talk the talk or even walk the talk. We write the talk." (p5)

Why does it matter? Roughly 70% of all communications among teams is virtual. And The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology states that 50% of the time the 'tone' of the email is misinterpreted! Yikes! Think about some of the poor digital language you've encountered:

• cameras off in meetings

• blank stares at the screen with no reactions to the speaker

• on screen, but eyes clearly reading something / distracted