In recent years the term “social distancing” has been at the center of public conversation. But it’s not “social” distance but physical separation that we are trying to promote. Preserving social ties-even at a distance-is essential for both mental and physical health.
1[■] Modern technology has provided us with many tools. Not all tools promote social connection equally, however. And often such seemingly small choices can make a big difference between strengthening stronger social connections and giving in to growing social distance.
2[■] When people overestimate the costs or underestimate the benefits of voice-based communication, it can create a misplaced bias (偏见) for text-based media. In one experiment, we tested whether the media through which people interact affect their sense of connection-and how expectations about certain technologies impact the communication media they choose to use. Although voice-based interactions(such as phone calls)can produce stronger connections, text- based media(such as e-mails)are often preferred.
We asked participants to connect with someone that they hadn’t interacted with recently, either through e-mail or over the phone. 3[■] They generally assumed that they’d feel more connected when interacting over the phone than over e-mail. But they also predicted that talking on the phone could be more uncomfortable than dashing off an e-mail. Although these participants believed that talking encouraged stronger bonds, most of them said they’d rather send an e-mail than call the person up. Fears about awkwardness push individuals toward text-based methods for communicating.
4[■]Then we followed up with them after they had done so. As expected, we found that people did form meaningfully stronger bonds when interacting over the phone than over e-mail. More importantly, though, there was no difference in the amount of discomfort when reconnecting on the phone. The human voice appears to provide benefits for connection.
Our work suggests that feelings of social connection are apparently facilitated by one’s voice rather than their keyboard.
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