Tag: text

How Much Harder Is It to Communicate in Today’s World?

By Mitchell Slepian

In today’s world, we have so many tools to communicate with each other. Does it make life easier? Yes. Does it make life tougher? Yes. Let’s sit back and think for a minute. We now communicate in person, by phone, text, chat, social media, and other ways. It’s not unusual to be sitting at your desk, whether it is in your kitchen or an office somewhere in the city, focusing on your assignment, as emails fly across your screen, your phone buzzes with countless texts, and people are contacting you on Facebook’s and LinkedIn’s messaging services. Does it make it easier? It can. Does it make it rougher? It can.

Many people get jittery as they enter the final stages of a project. As you’re launching it on your website, social media feeds, and to the media, you want it to be perfect. Once it’s been decided that the documents, graphics, etc., are final, the push begins. As you’re uploading to your project management software to start the distribution process, it’s often when it can get chaotic.

I like to remain focused, sit at my laptop, plug away, and be zoned in only on the project at hand.  Too many times, it’s at that time when everyone decides to weigh in once again. My Outlook account is full of emails. Thanks to today’s technology, you can see them jumping out at you. My phone goes crazy with countless texts. Then there are the people who decide to message you on LinkedIn or Facebook. Or use Slack or Snap. Does this help you? Yes and No. But in many cases, that’s what creates confusion and leads to mistakes. I have been telling people at the final stages of the project, let’s use one stage of communication. I prefer email. I make sure to tell people to remember to hit reply all. Most of the time, this works. It keeps people focused.

Alana to the rescue

Jake was sifting through Jen’s phone. He couldn’t believe he had to call his wife’s ex to save her.  However, the circumstances were unusual.  He texted Marc.  No answer. He was being pelted with prunes, raisins and apricots. Many landed on Jen’s tummy.  Hospital security was knocked out by the dried fruit.

All of a sudden, Alana and Tzipora were walking by.  Alana met Tzipora at the hospital to go over Tzipora’s wedding. Eran and she were going to wed.  Every now and then Tzipora still convinced Alana to jump into bed.

They heard people screaming.  Tzipora said the yells were probably an accident victim. Alana didn’t think so.  She heard these screams before. They were different. She saw Anat attacking Jen. Jake was down for the count. Alana looked at Tzipora and smiled.

“Anat leave her alone. Let bygones be bygones. We were all messed up when we were young.”

Anat sneered.  “I’d love to. But I can’t. She should know what it felt like.”

Alana had enough. She unleashed red wine. It splattered all over Anat. She hit her right in the eyes. Some went up her nose.  Funny thing is it didn’t do anything to remove her dirt. It just caked on. But it did slow her down.

Jen was raced into the delivery room. Jake followed. His box of cigars was destroyed.  But he could care less.

Anat got up and pelted Alana with cannonball sized raisins.  Alana ducked.  This time with Anat, she was clearly in control.  She sprayed Anat again and again. White and red.

Anat jumped back. She started to walk away. But Alana unleashed her full arsenal.  She hadn’t fought with apples and figs for a while. But knew you can’t count Anat out. Alana was going for the kill.

All of a sudden all stopped to the sound of a babies’ first cry.

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