15 Nov New Survey Confirms Fear of Difficult Conversations Is Growing
Today, I heard on a local Washington, DC radio station (WTOP) that from a new survey on Social Media by Lab42.com, when they asked their survey audience of 500 Social Media users 18years old+, “If you wanted to ask someone on a first date, how would you ask them?” the response was:
Facebook: 24%
Phone: 16%
Text message:11%
Email: 5%
Other: 2%
I am hoping the rest would actually walk up to the other person and ask face-to-face but who knows?
When they asked, “Have you ever broken up via text message, email or Facebook?” the results were:
Yes: 33%
No: 67%
The next question was, “Would you ever?” and the answer was:
Yes:40%
No: 60%
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I am noticing that the people who ask me the questions about “how to talk with others” and “when to have difficult conversations” are getting younger and younger. Social media outlets are so prevalent, so accessible and so acceptable to a growing faction of society that they are top of mind when many think – “How should I say this to him? or her?” Because we know that the other person is waiting for the next text message or Facebook message and will immediately “hear” what we have to tell them, it has become more acceptable to use these media when the telephone or face-to-face encounter would be better. But even though these electronic media are more acceptable, none of the people with whom I have spoken have ever said they thought being broken up with by text was a good thing. To a one, they have shared that they felt the other person was cowardly and a good riddance since they would do such a thing to someone with whom they shared a caring relationship.
I would be interested in hearing what you think.