Some companies, like IBM, started using social media to communicate in the workplace. But can social media replace normal interpersonal communication?Social media indeed draw distant between people much closer than in the past, but that only applies to people who are not in the same location. But as for work place, can they produce the same effect? Personally, I doubt so.
I am not an expert in psychology and behavior science, but from personal experience, interaction is very important. Interaction is not only with verbal conversation, but also non verbal communication. We pick up clues from all the non verbal communication a person make, and sometimes get our satisfactory there. Will you feel better when your boss
send you a one page email to praise you in your work, or having a pat at your back from him and receiving a big smile from his face? One of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is socialization, and human relation in the work place is one of the most important factor for work satisfactory.
And these socialisation in work place can bring along more ideas for the company in a meeting when different ideas come together to form a new one. Some companies try to make things more convenient for their employees by having these discussions on a Wiki site where everyone has a platform to share everytime anytime. However, this limits the chances to get non verbal responses and also blocks positive arguments.
