{"id":834,"date":"2013-07-29T08:55:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T20:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=834"},"modified":"2013-07-29T08:55:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-28T20:55:12","slug":"everybodys-talkin-at-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=834","title":{"rendered":"Everybody\u2019s talkin\u2019 at me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neon\"<\/a>Everybody\u2019s talkin\u2019 at me \/\u00a0<\/i>I don\u2019t hear a word they\u2019re sayin\u2019\u00a0<\/i>\u2013 Fred Neil (although for most of us, probably via Harry Nilsson)<\/p>\n

According to the cab driver who was taking me home a couple of days ago, everyday communication has become \u2018too bloody complicated\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018There\u2019s just too much stuff coming at ya these days.\u00a0 No wonder nobody knows what they\u2019re doing.\u2019<\/p>\n

He was telling me this as he piloted the cab through heavy traffic, doing his best to ignore temporary traffic signs, while following instructions from the lady on his satnav and listening to talkback radio.\u00a0 Oh, and he was also offering advice to more than a few of the other drivers with whom we were sharing the road.<\/p>\n

\u2018My son,\u2019 he told me, raising his voice above the sound of the radio \u2018works at a call centre.\u00a0 And do you know, about half of the calls he gets are from people who can\u2019t even follow instructions.\u00a0 They get something in the mail, or they go onto their smartphone or their computer, and yet they still have to call the call centre.\u00a0 What\u2019s that all about, eh?\u2019<\/p>\n

I was about to suggest that perhaps some of the problem might lie with the fact that the original communication was not sufficiently clear or concise.\u00a0 But, by then, he was hanging out of his window suggesting to a woman in a Mercedes that if she wanted to \u2018drive like that\u2019 she should find a disused airfield somewhere.<\/p>\n

I am old enough to remember when most written communication was pompous but focussed.\u00a0 Dear Sir, In reply to yours of the 13th inst., the outstanding balance is $13.43.\u00a0 Yours, etc.<\/p>\n

And screens generally had just one image and maybe a line or two of text.<\/p>\n

Today, the authors of both written and electronic communication seem to find it hard to resist bombarding the recipient with as many messages as possible.\u00a0 And the possibilities are seemingly endless.\u00a0 But, as one of my colleagues says: Just because you can, it doesn\u2019t mean you should.<\/p>\n

If you have something to say, something that you want your reader to understand and act upon, it\u2019s still a good idea to ensure that what you write is clear, concise, and focussed.\u00a0 As George Bernard Shaw once observed: \u2018The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody\u2019s talkin\u2019 at me \/\u00a0I don\u2019t hear a word they\u2019re sayin\u2019\u00a0\u2013 Fred Neil (although for most of us, probably via Harry Nilsson) According to the cab driver who was taking me home a couple of days ago, everyday communication has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}