In today’s digital world of communication, slack-splaining is a very common factor. We know that emails or IMs are very convenient ways of communication nowadays. In fact, we can connect with one another very easily through the click of a few buttons. However, in virtual communication, there remains a fair chance of being misunderstood. This is due to the fact that our brains assume negatives easily.
According to a recent survey, it’s around 3000 workers by Loom, even more than 91% of workers have experience misinterpretation of their messages at their workplaces. In fact, among them, almost 20% reported that such misinterpretations have caused demotion or even sacking from jobs.
Therefore, it often seems important to explain our messages in detail, so as to wipe out any possible chance of misinterpretation. Perhaps this is where slack-splaining comes in. Read this article to know more about the topic.
Slack-splaining: Digital Communication and Misinterpretation
Senka Hadzimuratovic, head of communications at Grammarly, recently offered the possible reasons for such misinterpretations. According to Senka, language is a very complex system. Moreover, at workplaces due to increased workload and complexities, misunderstanding is common. In fact, the modern-day format of remote work requires employees to participate in more written communication than normal face-to-face communication.
Research conducted by Grammarly and The Harris Poll found out that employees nowadays spend almost half of their week in writing communication by email and Slack. In fact, this has increased this misinterpretation to a large extent.
Dr Betsy Dalton, assistant professor of communications for Middle Tennessee State University, states that Slack platforms, emails and texts are ‘lean’ channels of communication. In normal communication, nonverbal cues like facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, and posture, play essential roles in conveying meaning.
Therefore, according to Betsy, video calls and such types of face-to-face communications convey meanings and emotions with better clarity. These are rich channels of communication. On the other hand, the lean channels of communication are unable to communicate emotions and meanings in a proper manner and lead to misinterpretation. Thereby we try slack-splaining. However, that ix probably a waste of time.
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Can Emojis Be The Right Way Out?
As stated earlier, the lean channels of communication are unable to communicate meanings properly. Therefore, a message sent in a positive spirit may end up getting negatively interpreted. To cope with this issue, most of us overthink emails and messages. Moreover, we add extra explaining words and expressions to cancel out any chance of misinterpretation.
Joe Thomas, Loom CEO, states that when the facial expression is not visible the chances of misinterpretation increase. In fact, Joe uses the word slack-splaining to describe the tendency of digital writers to over-explain their messages to avoid misinterpretation. In doing this, people add emojis to the messages to properly convey the tone.
Most people slack-splain due to fear The Loom survey stated that most of the respondents stated that they are constantly worried about their messages getting misinterpreted. About 93% of the respondents felt the need to explain their messages using extra sentences and 77% of them felt the need to use emojis.
Thomas states that this leads to the employees getting over-stressed about their communication. This stress negatively affects the work and also creates a negative mindset in the employees. In fact, this act of overthinking emails and IMs takes up excess time and negatively impacts productivity. Therefore, businesses need to ensure the availability of proper tools and programs to ensure that their employees do not spend much time slack-splaining.
Conclusion
Joe Thomas adds that when we feel the need to add emojis or use slack-splaining, we must consider whether a face-to-face conversation can be an alternative. Therefore, we may choose to use live video calling or a recorded video message. This will be helpful in cancelling any chance of confusion.
Moreover, it is also essential to choose the perfect communication tool for us. However, we should not give up using emojis altogether. According to various researchers, emojis do have a place in digital communication. In fact, emojis should be used keeping in mind the given context. Being careful, we can thus avoid wasting time on slack-splaining.
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