Deciphering Digital Body Language and the Gen-Z in New Normal

Abstract

The post-pandemic era or the era of the new normal has kept us all on tenterhooks since the unanticipated inception of the pandemic. The world reluctantly and gradually slithered on the spine of technology and took the reign to bridge the gap that slid between the crevices of the online and offline world, the normal and the new normal, non-digital and digital communication. Digital body language - an integral part of digital communication, is an idea that has gained momentum recently in the new normal, where digital-only communication is seen progressively as something inexorable. We find ourselves surrounded by communication that most of the time occurs exclusively digitally. Digital body language, like physical body language, plays the same integral and vital role in communication, where the former is more difficult to decipher. While communicating on digital platforms, occupying the digital space via email, messenger, chat, or video call, there are more chances of misunderstanding and more nuances to deal with, than in physical communication.

Gen z, iGen, or centennials born between 1995 and 2012, are the generation born with the internet and mobile phones in their pockets- which generously offered them earlier exposure to communication skills and digital communication. The present chapter seeks to explore in its first part, analyzing how and in what ways we need to acquire an understanding of digital body language to dissolve the barriers and filters present, to communicate effectively. In the second part, there is a discussion on how equipped is the Gen z- the communication generation- to combat the challenges of the digital space imposed by digital body language and what we need to learn from them.