Social Blindness

This theory can relate to other forms of social interaction, but it specifically concerns telephone use and how it affects socialization.
Some social critics and theorists have blamed the telephone for cutting down on purer forms of socialization, ones that promote both trust-building and unfiltered reinforcement. On that note, I’ve found that many individuals avoid using the telephone specifically because it forces them to rely too much on their imagination. (An even extremer form of imaginative communication would be epistolary correspondence, which relies on all kinds of fantasy devices due to the absence of both auditory and visual cues.)

Concerning telemarketing, I posit that many individuals’ animosity comes from an inability to see the person on the other side, something that strips them of their ability to assess intention. In other words, the mind becomes frustrated with being addressed personally by an impersonal entity it can’t see.) The result is a kind of social blindness, or an inability to openly confront the other person.

Many individuals that I’ve talk to also described frustration while trying to work out problems over the telephone with friends or family. One individual, a woman in her early twenties, described telephone arguments with her boyfriend as being suffocating:


It’s like trying to find a key at the bottom of a swimming pool with a blindfold on. I would much prefer talking face-to-face, being able to read the other person and know when or where to adjust.

The most telling thing about this subject’s response is that she described her conversations in conscious terms, as though she could remember controlling her nonverbal cues and responses. This is highly unlikely, because nonverbal cues are given and received subconsciously. Still, her response does show that she values, even needs, face-to-face communication.