Introducing the Communication Mindfulness Approach: Online Safety through the Lenses of Technology, Language & Psychology
Course | Introductory | Module | 1
“For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind.”
~ Eleanor Everet
Introduction: Online Safety
From browsing websites and reading emails to following influencers on social media, our digital actions have the potential to threaten our online safety. A large reason for this is the way that we have come to view our online activities as routine parts of our day. We are so used to checking our inboxes or doing a quick Google search that a threat to our safety could easily slip our notice and become a much more serious problem. So, how can we change this?
The first step is to recognise the difference between online safety and cybersecurity. While cybersecurity refers to the ways in which we can protect our devices and data from threats like hackers, online safety refers to the actions we can take to protect ourselves from harmful experiences online. Although both are important, if we learn to improve our online safety, we will ultimately be able to improve our cybersecurity as well.
The second step is to gain an active awareness of the factors that can influence our online behaviour. It is this active awareness, or communication mindfulness, that will allow us to improve our online safety.
For this purpose, we will now outline how the lenses of technology, language and psychology can be used to develop a holistic approach to online safety.
Online Safety through the Lens of Technology:
At Communication Mindfulness, our approach to online safety is mainly focused on how language and psychology can influence our online behaviour.
With this in mind, however, it is still important to be reminded of some of the basics of online safety. From checking hyperlinks to understanding how different types of online scams work, we can use the lens of technology to build a solid foundation on which to base the rest of our approach.
Online Safety through the Lens of Language:
To better understand why language should play a key role in our approach to online safety, we need to look at some of the differences that exist between in-person and online communication.
Firstly, we should note that the way we communicate in person, by talking to one another, is a form of synchronous communication. This means that when we finish speaking, the person we are speaking to can give us an immediate response. Although this is similar for some types of online communication, like video calls, the way that we communicate online is usually considered to be asynchronous instead.
With asynchronous communication, there are delays between the information we send and the information we receive. For example, when we send someone a text message, we must wait for them to receive it, open it, and respond to us before we can continue communicating. This could take seconds, minutes, hours, days or even weeks!
Another difference we should be aware of is that face-to-face interactions depend on non-verbal, unspoken cues (or signals). These cues, such as facial expression, body language, voice tone and intonation, help us recognise the intention behind someone’s words. They can also help us to better understand how someone is feeling.
This means that when we move to asynchronous, online forms of communicating, we are removing the cues that intonation, facial expression, and body language would usually give us. As a result, we become more dependent on the actual words that are used in a message to understand how the person we are communicating with is feeling, or what they are really trying to tell us.
Online scammers can use this to their advantage: they can change the language of their messages to influence our thoughts and feelings in different ways, and to get us to take different actions. But, by learning to spot language clues, we can more easily identify online scams and the ways they are trying to influence us.
Online Safety through the Lens of Psychology:
Have you ever received an out-of-the-blue text message which promised you a large cash reward? How about an email warning you to change your account details for a service you’ve never used? Or an online job advert offering an impressive salary for almost no work?
These are all examples of online scams that use different psychology-based methods to trick us into giving away our money or personal information. Having an active awareness of these methods and how they try to influence our behaviour can help us stay safe online in our day-to-day lives. This is why, at Communication Mindfulness, we will also look at online safety through the lens of psychology.
By taking this combined approach (through the lenses of technology, language and psychology), we will not only improve our ability to spot potential risks online, but we will also learn to master the art of thinking before clicking!
Conclusion:
Over the course of this article, we have outlined the key difference between online safety and cybersecurity. We have also provided an overview of the Communication Mindfulness approach to online safety through the lenses of technology, language and psychology. In the articles that follow, we will continue to develop this holistic approach, starting with the lens of technology.