Essay

Introduction

By the end of 2009, Gartner Inc. expects the volume of instant messages worldwide reach 3.28 trillion (million million), compared with 2.47 trillion in 2008. Many of these messages are sent by teenagers, who only in the United States sent and received on average 2,272 messages per month in 2008. Add to that virtual communities like Face book, email, bogs and other electronic media and realize what kind of communication system and permanent frenzy experienced by young people today. Unfortunately, most of these communication tools are limited to the exchange of written words. The phones allow the transmission of voice, pauses and inflections. But those tracks do not appear in a world dependent on the written word. Users insert smileys in emails, but do not see the true faces of each. Read comments on Face book, but not "read" the other's position, body gestures, eye movements, changes in personal space and other behaviors (and expressions) nonverbal (Mark, 2008).

Discussion

In 1959, anthropologist Edward T. Hall called these human expressions as "a silent language." The anthropologist argued that body language; facial expressions and gestures work in "juxtaposition of the words" printed feelings, attitudes, reactions and judgments. This is the reason, explained Hall, which U.S. diplomats were entering a foreign country completely fluent in the local language, and still reeling from a communication error to another, as it failed in the decoding of gestures and subtle protocols that accompany the words. Within cultures, Hall took over; people more or less "speak" the same silent language. But thanks to the avalanche of text-based communication, this may not be the case. Los Angeles Times reported in 2008 in Silicon Valley that some companies have resorted to banning laptops and smart phones in meetings to counter a new problem: "continuous partial attention." With a device in hand, those ...