What is analogue communication? Simply explained

Analogue communication contrasts with digital communication, where people can convey fairly clear information through verbal language and signs. In conversation we need both.

Analogue communication: More than just language

Analogue communication is one of two types of communication that people use to exchange information. It includes everything that people cannot express through speech alone: Facial expressions and gestures, tone of voice, body language and sign language on a non-verbal level.

• Analogue communication refers primarily to non-verbal interaction, which cannot be conveyed at all through media channels such as e-mails or short messages.
• In particular for the relationship level between people, analogue communication plays a decisive role, as much finer nuances and aspects are conveyed through it than through pure language.
• The Austrian communication scientist Paul Watzlawick already described the special nature of analogue communication. Even people who do not speak the same language can communicate and understand each other on an analogue level.
• However, even with non-verbal communication there is always room for interpretation and thus the possibility of misinterpretation.
• In contrast to this is digital communication via speech: if you have never learned a foreign language, for example, you will not understand it by just listening to it. To communicate, we humans use both digital and analogue communication, as Paul Watzlawick already explained.