Richness V.S. Leanness / Media Richness Theory

Richness

The abundance of Nonverbal cues that add clarity to a verbal message

Leanness

Messages that carry less communication due to a lack of nonverbal cues

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Communicative richness and leanness is something that has been very prevalent in our culture today with how immersed everyone is in their phones at all times. According to Business Insider, US smartphone owners aged 18-24 send 2,022 texts per month on average– 67 texts on a daily basis.

That is a lot of texts a day. As a clear medium of communication between people, we should understand how it differs from the face-to-face communication we’re used to. When we’re communicating face-to-face we have very rich messages, meaning we talk with not only our words but with our tone, with our body language, or any non-verbal cue. For example, if someone tells you they feel great but you can tell from nonverbal cues that they are uncomfortable based on the fact that they aren’t smiling, or their body isn’t facing you, or if their voice seems solemn, then you can tell that they aren’t telling the whole truth and those are the cues that you wouldn’t receive through a text message. Not only do we have less information to work with lean messages, but we tend to construct our own messages when the messages themselves are lean. For example when your partner or significant other sends you an ambiguous  message like “whatever then,” you might fill that message with your own reason of why he or she sent that message. Misinterpreting a message can lead to fights and a poor relationship. Just like the video said, if our brains are looking for a fight, then everything will look like a reason to fight, even if those incoming texts are harmless. Of course, texting is invaluable for all of us, it provides us with a means of communication that is so easy and quick, but we should be mindful about what we decide to communicate over text and what we decide to communicate over person. Even in Aziz Ansari’s experience when texting another, 

he encounters trouble when there are time gaps after a significant question. Perhaps the other person was just busy, or maybe they wanted to convey the feeling that he or she did not want to hang out. There are a lot of missing clues for us to take in and based on what we do have, we might come to the wrong conclusion. Another part of the video that was particularly interesting is the point that even though women try to be more constructive with their texts, their relationships in general still don’t end up being any more successful than those who don’t use texting as a medium to maintain the relationship. It conclusively seems as though that you shouldn’t let texting become a big part of your relationship as it is difficult to manage the real messages that want to come across. When in any kind of relationship you want to have great communication, and the key to healthy communication point to rich messages over lean messages.