The Best Ways to Communicate Online
These days, it’s easy to get lost with so many notifications, apps wanting your screentime and ads pushing for attention. It poses the question, what is the best way to communicate with loved ones, friends and family?
Of course, you can’t go wrong with a call. Picking up the phone and talking to each other is an easy way to stay current, and you can end up chatting for hours. It’s one of the most enjoyable way to enjoy a catchup without being next to each other. But why not see each other too?
As they say, about 55% of communication is non-verbal, so why miss some ques when it can be so easy to get to them? There are multiple ways that you can video call loved ones to catchup when you can’t be there in person. This allows your camera to be on and theirs as well, which means you can hear and see them through your device – just like a call. A great example of this was over the Covid-19 lockdowns, where my family in Sydney would catchup, each with a bottle of wine (and later margaritas) and video-call. It was a great way to spend hours together when we were apart. Apps like FaceTime (only on Apple Devices – iPhone/iPad) and Facebook Messenger (available on most phones) are the easiest to use. You can use them to video call just as easily as a regular phone call. You can see their smiling faces and hear their joyful laughter.
Zoom and Microsoft Teams are other ways to video call, but they introduce some complexity, such as having to have a Microsoft or Zoom account. Most people will already have Apple or Facebook accounts.
Texting is an effective way to keep up with key information and most people use it as such. It can be difficult to hold long conversations over text, so it’s common courtesy to keep things brief where possible, maintaining politeness. ‘Text talk’ is mostly a thing of the past!
Facebook messenger is an offshoot of Facebook, which serves as a less formal way to communicate. It holds exactly the same purpose as texting, without the need for a phone number – it uses data rather than SMS’. It also means that you can talk to anyone that you have as a friend on Facebook without needing to get their number or further contact details. If you’re already friends on Facebook, you can go into Facebook Messenger and start talking to them – easy as that!
The good old Facebook is an awesome way to keep up to date with the ones you care about. Rather than having for them to send you an individual message with photos and details, it allows a succinct way for you to see what they’ve been up to and vice versa. Once activated, you can add ‘Friends’ on Facebook which is like adding a contact to your phone. You search up their names, find the right person and add as a friend. When you add as a friend, it’s like you’ve subscribed to their news feed. You get to see the images/text they put up and you can interact by ‘liking’ it, or ‘commenting’ on it, like you would if you saw them in real life and they can see yours too. Share some pictures of your favourite café, a night at the Opera or just some great takeaway! Just a reminder, your comments can usually be seen by all of your Facebook friends and all of the person you’re commenting on’s Facebook friends as well. Don’t get into hot water there!
If you’re wanting to stay up to date with your loved ones, friends and family, get in touch with Greyology and we can get you on track!
Edin Read.
Founder & Chief Technician.
☎️ +61 401 018 615
