Digital communication: comparing synchronous and asynchronous styles

- Have you ever stressed out about sending an email?

Rereading it to see if it sounds okay

or wondering if you added too many exclamation points?

Or maybe you feel confident when expressing yourself

via text message,

but you just can't seem to find the words

when it's time to make a phone call.

But it isn't just about who you're communicating with

or whether there's a screen separating you.

The TIME that passes

between each chunk of language makes a huge impact.

(pensive music)

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See, I'm Dr. Erica Brozovsky and this is "Other Words."

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- [Announcer] "Other Words."

- Think about speaking or signing face-to-face

or talking on the phone.

These are forms

of synchronous communication,

conversations where all the speakers are participating

at the same time.

Asynchronous communication, on the other hand

involves time passing between conversational turns.

That could be a few minutes when you shoot a quick reply

back to an email

or even weeks between sending and receiving a letter.

Synchronous communication tends to use signed

or spoken language

while most asynchronous conversation happens

in written form.

It would be pretty weird if I said "Hi to you"

and then waited around a few hours for you to respond.

This difference allows synchronous communication

to carry layers of meaning

that asynchronous conversation can't do as easily.

Intonation or altering the pitch

of our voices can convey emotion, add emphasis

and even indicate

whether something's a question or a declaration.

Sign Language users can express these messages in the speed

and size of their signs, but intonation carries a lot

of subtle context about what an utterance means.

It's the difference between "Come see me in my office!"

and "Come see me in my office."

Though incomplete, there are ways we try to replicate tone

in asynchronous written communication.

Punctuation helps us denote that we're asking

a question, where we might otherwise use up speak.

We can italicize words for emphasis,

type in all caps to indicate shouting

or even use mixed case to connote a sing-songy mocking tone.

But written language doesn't perfectly replicate

all the different nuances when we speak.

Think about how hard it is to show sarcasm

through writing, and when we don't all share the same ideas

about how to visually represent tone, well,

that's why some people still send those ominous

text messages with a period at the end.

Synchronous communication also gives us immediate feedback

when our conversation partners use "backchanneling".

Nodding, saying "Mm hm," "Okay," or "Really,"

while other people are speaking

gives them real-time confirmation that they're being heard

and understood.

And speaking of nods,

synchronous conversation is full of gesture.

The ways we move our bodies, especially our hands

when speaking can add emotional context

to the words we're saying

and even convey ideas not easily expressed through speech,

like when you're trying to come up with a word

but you can't quite... y'know.

Some gestures which linguists

call emblems carry meaning

without us having to speak at all, like a thumbs up for yes

or shaking your head for no.

Gestures help a listener more fully understand

what a speaker is trying to say.

But research shows that gesture also helps the speaker

with cognition and fluency.

Blind speakers,

even those who have never seen gestures produced

will regularly gesture when speaking.

But even without these linguistic tools,

asynchronous communication has its own advantages.

A time gap

between conversational turns can give us space

to look up extra information, double check our spelling

and read over our message a time

or five to really perfect what we want to say.

Asynchronous communication can also do away

with filler words, those ums and likes, and you knows,

we use when we're trying to complete a thought.

Fillers serve a useful linguistic purpose

when we're thinking, but not done speaking.

They let others know that it's still

our conversational turn, but since no one

is likely to interrupt you when you're writing

a letter, there's no need to fill the pauses

while you find the words you're looking for.

With all these differences in synchronous

and asynchronous communication, it's no wonder

that sending an email to your coworker feel so fraught.

Especially in this always online, work from home era,

written communication doesn't feel quite

so asynchronous anymore.

Text messages may technically be asynchronous

but if you've ever been left on read,

you know that we send texts with the hope

of getting quick replies

and even having exchanges in real-time.

Same thing with instant messaging apps

like Slack, Teams or Discord.

If your boss Slacks you a question instead

of sending it in an email,

it probably feels like they want an immediate response.

Conversely, supposedly synchronous forms like cell phone

and Zoom calls tend to have a slight delay

that can throw a wrench into the normal conversational flow.

People are more likely to talk

over each other and backchanneling

and filler words are less precise to use

which means that the ways that, sorry.

No, no, you go.

Oh, okay.

I was just gonna say

that the ways we communicate start to blend our toolkits

for asynchronous and synchronous communication.

Take the length and formality of conversational turns.

Some people message in long paragraphs

with full punctuation while others send

off several quick bursts of texts in a row.

Text reactions like pinning an exclamation point

or a haha to another person's message can also function

as a form of backchanneling. According to linguists

Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCullough, we're even using

emojis as a form of gesture, both literally like the

thumbs up, clapping hands or fingers crossed emoji.

And in more figurative and innovative ways.

We don't have an IRL equivalent

of the upside down smiley face, or a string of flame emojis

but they have broadly understood meanings and text form.

As McCullough writes,

"These emojis don't stand in for individual words.

Instead, they make writing feel a lot more like talking."

We can take some of these semi-synchronous tools

into other contexts where they can be useful.

Think voice notes, which add intonation back

to asynchronous text conversations

or a zoom call where instead of taking yourself off mute

just to say mmm, you can now react with an emoji.

As the tools and timelines we use to communicate change,

the ways we use language are evolving right along with them.

And while we've all felt the friction

of switching between asynchronous, asynchronous

and semi-synchronous tools,

we're developing our linguistic toolkits to be able

to communicate more clearly all the time.

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See?