Do you want help getting voice over jobs online?
For the last several years, I worked behind the scenes at a successful voice over casting website, Voice123, while managing several positions. During that time, I sat in the feedback seat, reading thousands upon thousands of emails from voice seekers, and voice talent, all while assisting with castings, tech support, social marketing, and customer service. It was a fun ride, and now I want to share some great advice with you to help you get voice over work!
I am offering private consultations…
- Providing one-on-one private consultations via Skype to help voice talent with their online voice over career.
- Answering any question the talent may have for me about the voice over industry, or working online.
- Discussing how to use Voice123 to get the best jobs, what voice seekers think, and things you don’t realize are happening, which could be hurting your chances of getting work.
This is perfect for voice talent who…
- Work with online voice over casting sites
- Find themselves confused or curious about online casting.
- Experience low success rate.
- Wonder why they get invited to certain jobs, and not others.
- Wonder how casting websites really work, from the human perspective.
- Just started out on Voice123, or any voice casting website.
- Need some myth-busting
- Want the inside track on information you get nowhere else!
Why I think you should do it?
A steep learning curve comes with using any website, whether you sound professional or read copy better than anyone in the business. You have to know what people think when they use online voice casting sites, and this is information I learned through exhaustive research, both online and offline. If you are of the idea that sounding great, being professional, and paying to audition, means “You will work”…you may put yourself through a costly trial and error period. I can help you get past the nonsense and headaches.
Interested? Cost?
- Email me at stevenlowell9@gmail.com, and I will set up a time to discuss via Skype.
- I provide these information-filled consultations for $100.00, paid via Paypal.
Is it worth it? Yes, because…
You get several hours of private consultation with a guy coming off 5 years behind the scenes at the world’s largest voice casting site, who also spent a great deal of time the last few months helping out an voice over agent on another website.
There is simply no other training out there like this. You get honest, personal, direct, no-nonsense, useful information for your voice over career. So far, I have been doing these via word-of-mouth referrals from contacts, and have been enjoying it! I hope you will, too!
Reach out to me if interested, or just to say hi! 
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Why give power to those who don’t give back
Recently, I contacted every social connection I had made over the last few years to let them know of an agent looking to sign new voice talent. It was fun to give back, and if you are interested email me at stevenlowell9@gmail.com.
This agent was of the understanding that most of the connections I have either came from social media, college, or worked on P2P sites. After hearing many auditions, this voice over agent felt inspired enough to send me an email (see below), and it made me wonder why voice talent often give power to those, who do not give back. This is especially odd given the online business world survives on “give and take”. After hearing several auditions, I was sent an email by this agent, which reads:
“to Steven[Why] are these people doing work on low-paying jobs on [P2P sites]? They are really good!
Sincerely,Voiceover Department”
The only thing I edited from that email was the shock and awe that led to some profanity, and I completely understand it. I know how good many people are, and have often wondered the same thing myself. Getting back to my original point, “Why do voice talent give power to those who do not give back?”. I have some thoughts, and would love to hear yours, too. Why do people give power to those who do not give back? They are usually:
- Convinced they must act desperate to get work
- Believing that every day they don’t audition, they are not trying
- Trying to people-please everyone; not realizing some they attempt to please, don’t give a damn about them or anyone
- Attracted to the success of the powerful
- Someone has convinced them, “You are not good enough. You need me.”
I think out of all the above, #5 bothers me the most for it is the way a dictator usually thinks. The plain fact is this…and if you are a voice talent…you need to stamp or tattoo this somewhere on your body so you never forget it!
- “Find a balance of power that serves your career” (I hope you have big arms if you tattoo that!)
This means:
- Do what is right by you, even if it is not always profitable…because doing the right thing is always profitable in the end.
- Do not let anyone ever convince you that you are worth less than you think you are worth.
- Actions speak louder than words
- Never take anything personal.
Did you know that 74% of Americans would rather be unemployed than work for someone who does not care about their work performance? I interpret this to mean that a smart worker understands there is no career growth doing things for a business, that will not give back even the slightest bit of acknowledgement or advice. In this fast-changing world of “time” as a currency, career-growth is of the utmost importance.
Conclusion: Whether you audition for an agent or a website, remember you are both businesses. Act as such, and save the drama for behind the mic! You will be much happier that way, and feel more in control of your business.
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Excellent book for everyone running their own biz
Recently, I had the chance to read a book by Peter Shankman, the founder of HARO, a website that connects reporters with qualified sources on demand.
For the past few years, many of the business decisions and actions I took were influenced by his advice I had seen him give in social media, public appearances, and even Youtube videos. To say, “I became an evangelist of his school of thought” is an understatement. He always focuses on getting to the heart of the matter, and lucky for me, he is a huge advocate of great customer service, and friend of Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos (a company that is well-known for customer satisfaction). Given I was in a position where customer service was primary importance, while balancing sales and social media, what they taught about business was of great importance to me.
This is why I recommend for every voice actor running their own business, the following book! It lights a fire under you that you cannot ignore!
“Nice Companies Finish First – Why Cutthroat Management Is Over and Collaboration Is In”
Now, this book has nothing to do with “how to be a voice talent”, not at all. Some voice actors may look at the title and think, “WHAT!?! The voice over industry is a cutthroat business!”. This book is not inviting anyone to be a doormat. Some would love to have you believe the voice over business is cutthroat because it serves their agenda. Others love being in a cutthroat business because it serves a darker side to an individual who craves drama and conflict. However, when dealing with clients…business is business and drama is for “behind the mic”. Every voice actor, at some point, has to act as their own business, and stop being an artist for a little while. If you can bring to the table a professional side of business no one has ever seen, given the new age of social media communication, the customers will become your best marketing tools. This is an age where no secret exists for too long, and a person who acts in a cutthroat manner focusing only on profit, will not survive.
I also offer this recommendation because those who read this book, may truly begin to understand how I think. I will even say the book restored a faith in myself that I had lost over the past couple of months, even with so many kind and generous voice talent supporting me. For that, I thank all of you. And hey…you never know…you may just find that your attitude towards business is the same as those big companies you find yourself voicing for everyday. That knowledge alone may make you more competitive than someone with great talent, lacking a professional business sense.
Taking one small quote from the book, “Accept ultimate responsibility for the global impact of decisions made at every level of [your] company…because real profits come from doing the right thing.”
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Filtering out negativity in an online voice over world
Sadly, “filtering out negativity” is not a new topic, a necessary skill, and something I learned how to do years ago, while a theatre student in college.
I very much remember standing at a theatre call board to see who got in the next stage production at school. I remember standing next to people, and learning what the word “diva” meant, but something did not sit right with me when people complained about how someone else was not talented, or that they were wronged for not being chosen. Something did not sit right, and it was probably my background and love for sports. My mindset was always:
- “Walk it off.”
- “I lost. I will get ‘em next time.”
- and my dad’s favorite…“You’ll survive.”
“I will survive.” I had no idea, at age 18, how that saying made me have more in common with fellow theatre students than I realized. Regardless, in an online world filled with opinions, one must remember the quote:
- “A fly in stink, thinks his world is made of stink.”
Let’s say you have been hearing many negative things lately, that tend to disagree with the very nucleus of what makes you…”you”. I promise you, if you filter out the negativity, you will find more people to work with simply because the process of filtering out the negative, will help you find like-minded, positive people to work with.
How to filter out negativity:
- Are you in a Facebook group with lots of complaining? Leave it.
- Are you connected in social media to someone who constantly says things that bother you? Block them.
- Do you get emails from people who say nasty things to you, or ask you to think a way you wish to not think? Mark them as spam.
- Do you read forum posts and start to believe everything people say? Then, stop reading it.
- Do you think you will somehow miss something useful, your life will fall apart, or you will lose work, if you do any of the above? WRONG.
If there was one useful lesson learned about working at a website, it was that “The world goes on with or without me. How I survive is dictated by what I choose to give importance to in my life.” A poignant time in my life was after working one summer’s evening, when someone had threatened me via email, stating how he would “destroy me”. That very same hot summer night, I made my usual big gulp trip to the 7-Eleven, where I used make it a point to buy this homeless guy food…just because I wanted to do it. He remarked to me that same night, “You are a saint for helping me out.” It made me think, “Am I bastard like the angry email said, or a saint like the homeless guy said?”.
I then burst out laughing because it hit me:
- “If I know I am trying to do the right thing, I should listen to everyone, but only to focus on solutions; not complaining about problems.”
What the online world never prepared anyone for was how people do not always get along or understand each other because it is human nature. There is no way you can make everyone happy all of the time. What the online world did do was give us the technology to ignore, block, and avoid people. But they do not market these tools very often, right? Why not?
- Because it is a negative topic, and in our heart of hearts, when our world gets too negative, the business of working online suffers.
Get what I am saying? If what someone says disturbs your nucleus of “you”, just ignore it, walk away from it, or go buy a homeless man a burrito and soda. All of it will make you feel better, and that will help you make the best possible choices for yourself because you wasted no energy feeling negative.
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Why online voice casting escrow means pay is low
For years, I answered feedback emails on how Voice123 should improve its website. One of the many tasks I took on at Voice123 was helping with non-payment matters. These jobs ending up in non-payment always paid terrible, always contained poorly written descriptions, and funny enough…despite being a website…I never used technology to solve the problem of clients not paying.
I used a system of record keeping, and email etiquette learned from lawyers, while working in recovery (a nicer word for debt collection) on Wall Street. Every time I helped with such situations, and the voice actor was paid (or not), the follow up email usually included the statement, “Voice123 should have an escrow system for things like this!”. My response was usually a heart-felt, “Be careful what you wish for because you may just get it. With escrow, you get paid low.” I also knew this was not an excuse for not supplying what was being demanded. I knew escrow dictated that people would naturally be paid lower per job, even if it made payment easier. I also knew there was not a whole mess of trust going around, which still remains the real problem; not the absence of escrow. Maybe this is how human nature can disrupt technology? See below:
- Consumer trust is extremely low.(especially when it comes to advertising done through technology)
The deal is…we still trust, first, what our human relationships with colleagues tell us. So, no one is going to put the amount of money for a voice over job at a major ad agency into an online escrow account. Imagine you own a business for a moment. Would you put $5000 or $10,000 into a website escrow system for a voice over? Think what that means to you. If a business is going to pay traditional rates voice actors were used to seeing, prior to the advent of online casting, they are going to want to talk to a human being and the last thing they want to pay commission to at that price is an automated system. This means that the majority of automated postings that take place in abundance on casting websites are destined to pay low as websites cash in on the transactional fees for using escrow. I could stop the blog here, but let me explain further.
In the time I worked at Voice123, all success stories that I blogged about, all the great work you hear about happening online, always involved some sort of direct contact through a search feature, or the job posting was vague and merely a scouting attempt that led to something much bigger. What I remember most about things like escrow, or website casting, is that those with “the money” did not like using websites, and if they did it had to be incredibly simple, involve human interaction, and oddly enough…could not be too fast. Here is the funny dilemma about the community of people posting voice over jobs:
- Those who love technology, pay very low, and love things to be very fast.
- Those who have “the money gigs”, pay well, hate confusing technology, and prefer things be…slower.
Yes, they want things somewhat slower and involving more direct contact. Why? It is completely psychological, at times irrational:
- Fear we have lost control of our own jobs because something or someone is rushing us to complete a job, or forcing us to learn a new way to work.
- Fear the technology starts to own our business, as we are forced to answer emails quickly and listen to auditions faster.
- Fear of being hacked. Technology is still a wild west of vague legalities, and “Can we really do this?” business decisions. I feel for people involved in Bitcoin.
- Fear of reputations between countries. I used to read this all the time. People working with foreign countries, often assume “what they heard about people from another country” must be true. Even the most open hearted individual cannot ignore things that have taken place online, such as Nigerian check fraud scams.
- Loyalty to an industry and the people within it. The tech community is not the voice over community, and such a marriage is very difficult. For Big Bang Theory fans, it is like Sheldon Cooper marrying Penny; it may make for a funny show once or twice, but in the end, they just do not understand each other. In reality, it is not funny because people naturally stick to their inner circles of people w
ho “get how they think”, and then, “everyone else outside their circle must be nuts”.
I listened to people for years, and understood the heart of what made them concerned, “It is not about money. It is about the bigger industry picture, but still, don’t mess with my money.” There is something interesting to this dilemma. After a brief experience using a website as an agent, I started seeing that there will never be one all-powerful website. Why?
- The voice over industry is still REALLY small, despite the size of the Internet and businesses advertising.
- There are tens of thousands of people wanting to do voice overs, but less than 10,000 globally who get work.
- Online content is generated by only 1500 to 2000 voice talent, quite often dictating the sentiment surrounding casting sites. Remember how important brand recommendations can be? It does mean between 5% and 10% of a company’s social audience will drive 70% of business to a brand.
What this means is that websites will attempt to monetize the student community because it is larger, and that is where the money sits. As a result, online casting becomes a great way to get started, but eventually they grow out of it. Is all of this bad? I don’t really know. It sounds like business as usual to me: Spend the first few years of a career getting paid little, and then graduate to the next level where the money is….certainly not in an escrow system because you cannot trust technology. Trusting technology means trusting those who built it, and naturally we do not trust what we cannot see. However, it is good to have a website with an escrow system when the jobs pay low. It adds accountability to a business, who may prefer to have none in a global marketplace online. Through all changes in the industry, personal interaction is still the best way to get paid well, at least for now. Until then, when you have escrow in online casting, expect the pay to be low.
Because…well…it has to be this way until people feel as much reassurance in a business transaction through technology that they do when directly dealing with a person.
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
How I got started in voice overs
I wanted to have some fun today with this posting, and go all the way back to 1979, when I very first had the idea, “I wanna do voice overs!!!”. The interesting part about this may be that technology was involved, even way back then. Here is how I got started in voice overs…
- Dubbing over poorly dubbed kung fu movies with my friends every Saturday.
The very first video cassette recorders made for home usage in the 70′s, had a very large audio dub button on it. This allowed me, and two or three of my good friends, to do the following:
- Saturday 12pm: Drink lots of Coca-Cola
- Saturday 1pm: Record bad kung fu movie.
- Saturday 3pm: Play it back, while dubbing over the audio
- Saturday 5pm: Laugh hysterically at our own voices
- Saturday 7pm: Go home for dinner
- Saturday 9pm: Go back to friends for sleep over.
- Saturday 10pm -1am: Repeat processes #2, #3, and #4, until yelled at to go to sleep, or Saturday Night Live ends (depends which came first).
Those VHS tapes are gone now, but there are examples of such efforts on Youtube, that reminded me of how silly we sounded back then.
Here is an example:
Now, was this officially “starting” in the business? The seed was definitely planted, and theoretically…does the process of growing a flower not begin with the planting of a seed? Regardless, around that time, more “talking toys” started to come out from Texas Instruments and Mattel Electronics, such as “Speak and Spell” or “Intellivision”…
…and each time something new came out, it increased my desire to get into the business. I was also helped by the fact that my mother was often told how she should put her platinum blonde son into commercials or movies, which got my ego raised up. I became a bit of a showman at an early age.
Another thing I started doing after kung fu movies bored me; I got a video camera. I began making stop action films (be careful…youtube added some vulgar music to it)
…with my GI Joe toys, which seemed like an insane idea to people I knew, for more than two decades, until a cartoon called “Robot Chicken” came out. Turns out, I had brethren.
I was trying to create what I saw on TV in the old GI Joe cartoons from the ’80′s. I did not know what I was doing. I was only ten or twelve years old. Around high school, I hit puberty and voice overs went on hiatus, as I struggled like most high school kids did/always do, but the biggest difference is that what I did back in the 1980′s, is now extremely popular. I still remember my first year of high school when I showed one of my tapes to a new friend, and he looked at me like I was crazy. Years later, after connecting on Facebook, he told me, “I always admired your guts.” Go figure.
The moral of this reflection is that “getting started in voice overs” is not such an insane concept, as many with experience would express. The industry is forever evolving, and everything is always being “revolutionized” or “disrupted”. Life is also filled with people who love to hate and criticize. I got started in voice overs through the mindset of wanting to create, having fun with friends, childish energy, and showing off. I chose to create, and I never listened to critics. I ignored them until I had to listen because there are times in life where sacrifice becomes martyrdom, and food, money, and shelter are necessities. Food, stability, and money are not guaranteed in voice overs, and sometimes one must take a break to re-tool. However, I fell in love with voice overs when I was six years old, and entertaining became part of my nucleus, which is probably why I am still doing this today. I do not feel like I chose to start a voice over career. I feel like it chose me, and the more I worked at it, the more things started working out, because it can happen. But can your nucleus stand all the risk and sacrifices? Mine easily could because I became a tough kung fu master at age six….all with a cheap microphone and an over-sized VCR. 
Never forget where you came from. It tends to explain a great deal more than you think.
How did you get started?
About the author
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Business as usual…Old sayings that ring true again
Something has been happening in 2013. It appears that the Internet is getting back to business as usual, global economy or not. With that, comes the importance to remember all of the old things your mamma, teachers, and bosses taught you just 20-years ago. I want to share a list of old saying that rang true again for me this year:
- “Be careful of how you treat people on the way up. You may just meet them on the way down again.”
- “Never forget where you came from. You may be working for the very people you took the time to educate one day.”
- “People will remember what you say on a bad day, more than a good day. Sometimes it is better to stay quiet on a bad day.”
- “Doing things just because others do it……is not a good reason to do something.”
- “Actions speak louder than words.”
Where is this coming from? For the past few years, I was in and out of all the news about new tech gadgets coming out, and it was a great deal of fun. However, after all the noise from marketers, as the dust settled each time, I realized we are all very simple people; even when we want to act like we can re-invent the wheel, or create a software that leads to singularity. We are forever motivated by the same basic desires and needs for financial, mental, and or in some cases, spiritual stability (however that may translate to each of us…we all have a “sacred cow” of some sort). Some people fail, while others succeed, and the choices they make in reaction, can be more of determination of what happens than the original intentional action taken.
One major thing happens now, in light of all the technology available today:
- We pay more attention to the emails people write than any other form of technology, and the grammar within the email.
Business as usual…How we speak, write, think, and behave, says more about us than anything. In light of all the new ways to do things faster, it is the one way a person can grow or destroy his/her business.
About the author
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Voice talent…you will not get in trouble
When I started out as a voice talent in the 1990′s, I made it a point to never upset anyone. My motto was always, “Keep ‘em happy.” Like many voice talent I have communicated with, the following phrase quite often left my mouth…
- “I don’t want to get in trouble with that person.”
It is definitely a safer way to live, yet sadly I have found that those who live by this motto, often end up really making someone angry with their passive, “speak no evil” behavior. Face it now. You can respect people’s feelings, but there is no possible way for a person to go through a creative industry, without pissing someone off. Believe me…I tried to avoid it during a union strike in 2000, but you cannot get around it. Eventually, I tried so hard to the point that I got fed up and quit voiceovers in 2004. I said to myself, “This is a bullsh*t way of thinking, and I am smarter than this!”.
Then, I chose to go work for companies that REALLY made people angry…AIG…then back into voiceovers at Voice123. I admit, if I never worked for AIG, I never could have handled Voice123. What AIG taught me was despite everything you see and hear in the news and all that people “feel”, there is only one “truth” to what will happen. In the past 15 years alone, the voiceover industry has dealt with several union disputes, the rise of online casting, and changes in business practices that gave voice talent more power than they ever had before to “not get in trouble”. In order to survive, a person has to stick up for what he/she believes in, even if it means agreeing to not work with someone or something. I know such a fear of “getting in trouble” was the standard intimidating behavior in the entertainment industry for decades, where important people made examples of those they had disputes or arguments with, as a measure to say, “Do not mess with me or I will tell others not to work with you”. No one has that power anymore.
I want to touch on specific examples for which I have heard talent say, “I don’t want to get in trouble.”:
“I am afraid I market too much in social media. I don’t want to get in trouble with other talents.”
- Really? Who is hiring you? If you are afraid to market yourself, good luck having anyone find out about you, and social “ME”dia is just another playground for selling something. Why? Because 900 million people use Facebook.
“My friend/agent/coach told me to not use that website. I won’t try it. I don’t want to make him/her angry with me.”
- Really? Good luck telling the bill collectors or your starving family that you cannot eat because you are happier being unemployed because it makes your colleagues happy.
“The client on a casting website is mad with me. I don’t want to get in trouble with the casting site.”
- Seriously, the only way websites care about what you do is if you either do something mildly psychotic that hurts their company PR, commit a crime through the website, or worse…cut into their money-making ability. Before I worked at Voice123, I had issues with clients using the site, and even wrote a nasty email or two to customer service about the website’s performance. During my employment, I was almost fired twice for sticking up for what the company believed in, which had more to do with the way I did it. Sometimes you need to stick up for yourself, in order to educate yourself on how to handle something better. No one knows everything, and no one is above learning something new.
“I don’t want to associate with that person because it may get me in trouble.”
- Seriously, if you go through life picking and choosing business associates based around what others feel, even when it challenges your own passionate beliefs, you will never be happy with yourself. You will always just be a pawn in someone’s game of chess.
One from my own personal email bag…
“If you do that webinar about Voice123, and you don’t work there…will you get in trouble?”
- Oh please. Everything that made me perfect for Voice123 are the same reasons I had to leave it. I have strong opinions and I am passionate. I started to work there because I never trust a rumor mill, and I know you have to get your hands dirty, in order to see both sides of the story. I did just that, and can walk away with the knowledge and appreciation for what I have learned. I know there are rights and wrongs to everything. If I want to share this knowledge with someone to help them, it is my choice. I am always aware of the legal boundaries involved, but anyone who says, “If you talk to that person, I will (do something) to you.”, is simply a bully. I don’t like bullies, and equally, I don’t like people who are missing the backbone or constitution to learn something useful, in spite of the fear of what they may find out. If I had to choose between “learning something useful” and “not learning out of fear I may get in trouble”…well…you would never know me. I moved on to something bigger, but there is something I can give back to others. Because I can…I should.
Each and every new day is a learning experience, if you allow it to be. If you live in fear, you will limit what you can learn, and your career will be based solely on “what people choose to give you”. The hidden secret to any career is that people will always have more respect for a person who stands up for what they believe in.
About the author
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
VO Peeps presents two great webinars for voice actors
Sign up for great information!
Two of my favorite things to do at my last gig working at Voice123 were:
- Blogging (of course)
- Webinars for voice talent on using Voice123 (with candid Q&A sessions)
Call me a fool, but I like people. I like talking to them, and I especially like helping fellow voice talent achieve their goal of booking solid voiceover work! Why? It is a rewarding experience, especially when past attendees of these webinars would write me with stories of success due to the webinar the very next day. SO…
- In association with Anne Ganguzza, President of VOPeeps.com, we are holding two educational webinars on “How to Use Voice123″.
Now, I realize that some webinars on P2P sites make bold promises, but this webinar is different. It is being held after my six-year run as Community Manager of Voice123, and THAT was a great learning experience. What good is knowledge, if you cannot share it to make a better voiceover industry? Well, I can guarantee you this webinar is NOT a waste of time! Come to it, and ask me anything…and I do mean anything.
Debunk all myths and get information on how to use Voice123, that you will NOT get anywhere else!
About the author
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
7 Reasons Why People Go Silent in Online Communications
Have you ever been chatting with someone on Facebook or Skype, and then suddenly *POOF!*, they stop answering? Maybe, you asked someone for an opinion, and they suddenly had nothing to say? There are very human reasons why people go silent in online communications. You may want to concern yourself with how people react to your communication style, more so than condemning a person for not wanting to answer.
7 reasons why people go silent in online communication…
7. You stepped over the line with a joke
If you only know a person through communicating online, be careful of the jokes you tell, or things you laugh at with those happy emoticons. Technology may have connected people globally, but cultural differences still exist. Humor can be easily misinterpreted without face-to-face reassurance that something is a “playful joke”. With millions of life-styles online, you will hear things that seem extremely foreign to your own life-style. Be careful not to joke about, or laugh at someone’s way of living, especially because you may be insulting the very nucleus of the person you are talking with.
6. You asked a question they did not want to answer
With such a high demand for transparency, many people today assume that they have the right to know everything, and to not want to answer a question may be an assumption someone is intending to deceive. Believe it or not, privacy still exists. Your assumption of what you deserve to know may be diluted by personal agenda. If you like to get to the heart of a matter, and someone else leads a life of taking the path of least resistance, it may mean you should not be communicating at all. If a person goes silent, it may indicate that they are walking away from a conversation they feel could possibly turn negative.
5. Nature, life, or the unexpected called 
Yes, there are people who do not like to communicate on their mobile device, or laptop, while they are using the bathroom, talking to family, or even when something happens that unexpectedly pulls them off a computer. If someone stops talking to you, they may have gone “afk” or “brb”, and had no time to tell you. Even more so, they may just have forgotten to turn off their computer, or they may have stopped using that communication method to reach people.
4. You asked for opinions, they did not want to hurt your feelings
I see this quite often. A person writes, “You can be honest with me. What do you think?”, often forgetting that this sentence or phrasing, indicates the person asking the question is NOT seeking “honesty”. They are seeking “reassurance”. So, you either agree with a person to let them down easy, tell them how you really feel and risk creating a debate or hurting feelings, you lie to them, …or…you just do not answer. The phrasing, “You can be honest” really means, “I am vulnerable.”. If one really likes the person who asked for the opinion, the last thing he/she will do is endanger that relationship. It takes energy to try and figure out ways to let a person down easy. If you ask for an opinion, and you hear nothing back…remember the “sound of silence” can be quite powerful. They did say something to you: “No comment”.
3. You type-talk too much.
Everyone loves a fun person to talk with, but when you are typing a conversation, each word is effort. If communicating online always turns into writing an epic screenplay with you, at some point, people will go silent and just let you talk. This will mainly happen because not everyone has the time to engage in long conversations through lots of typing.
2. You have a toxic, confrontational communication style.
The need for social awareness is heightened once you start communicating online. If you communicate by constantly snapping back in an email, putting other people down, making demands, or constantly expressing aggressive views on sensitive topics, you can expect silence. If you do not care about what others think or feel when you express yourself, you can expect silence in abundance. How you communicate in face-to-face interactions will be amplified in online communication. Online communication basically allows for every human being to ignore someone who says something we do not like. When people go silent, it may just mean you compelled them to do so by how you chose to express yourself. There are reasons software for communicating gives people the ability to block other people. It is the digital way of saying, “Go away.” without the confrontation.
1. You use communication technology that blocks certain behavior
Do not be quick to take “silence” as a personal attack. Fact is, you can only communicate as well as the software lets you, or was built to let you. The website or software you use may have a back-end process for stopping aggressive communications that you never knew about, simply because the website is controlling their own reputation surrounding “community sentiment”. It also may not offer a communication method that is efficient, so no one uses it. Regardless of how wonderful technology is at connecting people, the unspoken rule about “people” is that we were really all never meant to get along with each other for a multitude of reasons. Creators of websites know this, and considering websites are profit centers aka. stores…the last thing a “store owner” will do is allow fights to break out in their “store”. Funny…there are reasons companies are silent about their unseen “filters” because the action of explaining them may very well lead to “silence” by the customer.
Overall, “silence” can very well be an indicator you are trying to communicate with people, who simply do not understand you. There is nothing wrong with it. We do it every day in real, offline-life. I avoid street preachers in New York because all they do is stand on the corner and yell about things they are concerned with. I also notice how even the most caring individuals have to ignore people, and it is a judgement call. Many times, people just have something they want to get off their chest, and “silence” is the proper reaction. This is something to think about when you constantly express yourself, and find most people are comfortable with just never responding to you.
Debunking all of the above…
All of the above stated…I do believe online communication has succeeded (or failed) at making the human race way more sensitive to other people’s needs than we should be. Part of life’s learning process means traveling down dangerous roads, in order to learn. If one is afraid to travel, simply because they are too concerned about everyone’s feelings, they will ultimately do nothing out of fear; the fear that any action taken will “piss someone off”. This means at some point, you are going to have to be yourself and make someone angry or upset. When that happens, you will choose whether or not that person means enough to you to deserve an apology. If not, consider it a learning experience, and you now know what type of person you would prefer to ignore. Lord knows…I have tried to get along with everyone I have ever met, and I know many who are like me, but I also know many who dislike me for simply being that way.
About the author
Steven Lowell is a blogger, voice actor, and voice-over industry advocate
Recent Comments