Getting Personal

In this blog post, Jane Brody, writer for the NYT, tells personal stories on her way to explaining scientific stories – a method of reporting she would not have been permitted in the paper. It makes for a nice change, and it brings you closer to the author. There’s more of a personality behind the communication. Social media is, indeed, personal, as Marc Monseau says here.

But social media can also assist in the speeding up and depersonalization of conversation. I read this blog by AV Flox recently and felt a bit sad at the end of it. She and her commenters bemoaned the way people mix personal niceties with professional business.

One of the surprises that I love in having moved to a more rural area is that people do exactly that. You make eye contact. You chat more. You move a little bit slower. Do I get less done because of it? I don’t think so. Am I happier because of it? Yeah, I am.

What about you?  What type of person are you? Do you want the conversation, the chit-chat, the nattering and niceties? Or are you just business?