Too Many Are NOT Reading!

As times change, so does our way of communicating.  300 years ago, people still traveled by foot, horse (mule or donkey), or buggy on land, and by boat.  Almost 200 years ago, in 1806, the first passenger train was introduced so people could travel further in a shorter amount of time.  Not but just a short 80 years later, the first automobile was introduced.  About the same time the automobile was introduced in 1906, so was the airplane. 

You are probably wondering why the history lesson on the way of travel.  Well, our forms of communication have done the same.  First, it was only by word of mouth with your next-door neighbor, places you went, yelling in the town square, or your handwritten letters.  Then came posters and flyers placed around town, such as Wanted Posters or Traveling Circus Posters.  Once the telephone was introduced, you could call your neighbor instead of walking over.  This saved time.  Then answering machines were invented so that you could get messages even if you were not home.  But it might have been too late to listen to the answering machine, so we needed phones on the go to get information even while we were at the grocery store, especially if someone forgot to write an ingredient down on a list. 

This created the need for cell phones, so if you weren’t home, you could still call and have a voicemail feature (essentially, the new answering machine) and text message, so the message could be waiting for you — another form of handwritten communication but in the palm of your hand.  Instead of mailing or dropping letters, the wonderful form of email was introduced.  With each advancement, the distance of communication became larger and larger.  

Let’s progress about 20 years!  You have social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.), and while they are electronic means of the original forms of word of mouth, posters (flyers), and handwritten messages, it is up to the individual to acknowledge the information being given to them.  It is a digital world! 

Someone once told me, “As a Gen Xer, we are the best generation to date.”  

“Why?” I asked.

She said, “Because, we have one foot in the ‘old’ and one foot in the future, always.”

That seems to be true.  We remember how we grew up, with textbooks, paper, and pen in school, yet, once we got into high school, we were taking computer typing classes.  I was in the 4th grade when our school had a computer lab.  We were on huge MacIntosh (now known as Apple) computers, playing Oregon Trail.  By the time I got into college, professors wanted our class assignments typed, double-spaced, etc.  Advanced 20+ years since 1997, and fax machines, home phones, and desktop computers are almost obsolete; PDF rules the document world, e-signatures for loans, and schools do all assignments via laptops.

While our generation, might be “one foot in the future” digitally, it is “one foot in the “old.” (At least me personally.) I think school textbooks should be like they were when I grew up and schools should have a school kitchen staff making breakfasts and lunches instead of microwaving food.  At least that is what is happening at my kids’ schools, maybe not all over the US.  But I cannot change it, no matter how much I want to; therefore, I have to, as Clint Eastwood says in Heartbreak Ridge, “Improvise, adapt, and overcome!”

As I think of that line, are you “Improvising, adapting, and overcoming” the digital way of communicating?  If you are hoping for things to be the way they were 20+ years ago, it’s not “Back to the Future” with a DeLorean Time Machine; it isn’t going to happen.  So, my advice is to “Improvise, adapt, and overcome” your communication thinking.

Hopefully, one of these will be your go-to and acknowledged source for updated information.  For example, our USA Dance Chapter uses email, text, flyers, word of mouth, announcements, brochures, websites, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Mailchimp, local and National news publications such as the American Dancer, the Tallahassee Democrat Limelight, the Thomasville Magazine, community calendars such as USA Dance National, the Council on Culture & Arts (COCA), and Eventbrite.  We try to cover all platforms, so nobody is left not knowing what exciting events are coming up. 

Read your text messages, click on “going” or “interested” on the events list on Facebook, read the newsletters and dance/event reminders (you never know; something might have changed since the previous one), and be respectful when announcements are being said at the dances.   

Please remember that someone took the time to write, design, and create the text, the call, the email, the newsletter, the dance reminders, {Editor’s addition — the article in American Dancer}…the list goes on.  The best thing that you can do is read and acknowledge the information/communication that you are being given.

What forms of communication does your Social Chapter use?  Do you have statistics on which form gets the highest results in attendance or responses?  Is there another platform that wasn’t mentioned? Email me! usadance6010@gmail.com