Can you Hear Me Now?

Communication...how many times do we screw up something just by poor communication? If you are in a band, have a manager, are a manager, have a girlfriend or are the girlfriend you better get your communication chops together. Most of the time we feel misunderstood and much of the time we are.
One of the evil culprits of bad communication is our ever more dependence upon email, tweets and status updates. Unfortunately, as much as email has saved the day of being able to communicate it has really killed the art of writing. Instant messaging, tweets and status updates are even worse. We have dropped our skills down to partial words, acronyms, quick typing, bad spelling and no art, no poetry, no flow. It used to be that people would write letters. Even the poorest and illiterate were able to assemble better sentences than what we construct nowadays. The reason I bring this topic up is that clarity in communication is more important now than ever. If you aren't clear about what it is your trying to convey, the repercussions are almost instantaneous. How often have we sent an email that the minute you hit send you regretted sending. Or worse, you sent it to the wrong person. Hell, I know I'm guilty of it. And who wants to have one of their rants sent into the vast internet wasteland where it becomes the joke email of the week! Sometimes it's better to get on the phone and talk with someone. I know for me I am not a typist. I don't like to write books with my emails and they might come off pretty curt. However, you get me on the phone and I can explain my position. If I am being misunderstood I can restate my position and if someone still isn't getting me... well then I guess I'll just send them an email (joke...get it?). BTW...in defense of email...I will say this. It does give you the opportunity to stay on point and edit yourself. But the important thing here is that when you have something important to say to someone. Schedule time and CALL them. Unless your letter writing skills are second to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, give folks the respect and deal with them direct.