Communicating in the Modern World.
How do we Communicate?
This post was inspired by one Maurice posted a few days back titled The Information Revolution What Will It Bring
What is happenning in our world? When I was a young kid we built cubby houses and played with billy carts, or made mud pies. As a teen we were heavily involved in sporting clubs and youth groups, camping and hiking or sitting around a table playing board games.
I know there are many young people who still engage in these activities but what do we see most of them doing.? It is not the young people only, adults are joining in this remote communication via Snap chat and Facebook also. .
This was posted on FB just last week https://www.facebook.com/stuffnowandhere/videos/645131309024... I thought it summed up the difference between the two generations beautifully.
Table Conversation
Some friends of mine took their grand daughters out to a restaurant for dinner. They chatted to each other at the table via their mobile phones. This is crazy, are we losing the art of communicating or losing the will to discipline our kids?.
We used to write letters to each other and look forward to a response. Now we get instant gratification. We do not need to wait for a week or more, the answer is back on our phones within minutes even seconds. I know it is a far more efficient world, especially for business and for relaying urgent messages. Everything happens at such a fast pace that I wonder if we are able to wthdraw from it and smell the roses.
Get in Touch
Visit a friend and have a chat rather than a text message, touch someone with our presence rather than a ding on the phone alerting them to yet another message. People need physical touch too. Give an older person who may be at risk of becoming a recluse because of the loneliness, a real visit with a warm hug..
Many of you will have seen Gary Turks video but I have included it here just in case you missed it.
What does it Cost?
Do you know that in the United States alone there are over 120 suicides every single day costing the United States 69 billion dollars annually. This is astounding, even shameful. I have to ask how many would have been avoided if someone knocked on the door and asked "how are you today?"
Even here in Wealthy Affiliate we could find ourselves being so consumed by the desire to make money online and being totally absorbed in what we are doing that we forget about our friends, neighbours and family. We need to budget and prioritise our time so that we do not neglect what is far more important than any quest for online success.
Put Down the Phone and Close the PC.
Can we allocate at least one full day per week to communicating without our phones but instead make some cookies or pick some flowers and go visit a friend. Can we take a dy off with our partners and other family members to enjoy a walk in the bush.?
It is too easy to allow ourselves to be stuck in front of this computer searching for keywords to build our websites when we should be looking for key people to build relationships.
I am as guilty as anyone so I have decided that has to change. Every Sunday at least will be a technology free day.
Recent Comments
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Well said. I'll never forget a time a few years back when my niece of 14 went to dinner with myself and her mother and she was texting on her phone all the while. I spoke up and said if she did not stop that and started to speak to myself and her mother I was leaving as there seemed no point in being together. With a shocked look in her eyes, she put the phone away and started to talk to us. She has since always followed suite and does not text in my presence. I have had discussions with her about actually talking to the people you are with and how important it is. She has gotten the message.
Parents and other caring adults need to point this out to people especially the young about the dangers of not speaking to actual live persons.
You have made a really good point there. We do need to take the lead and teach our young people to communicate without the arm extension. I am so glad your niece took in your words and complied.
Thank you for commenting.
It is a sad truth about the rise and development of technology. It snatches traditional valuable matters between family relationships and church values.
Just last month we held a District Fellowship centering on the importance of the Bible in the lives of families and the society. It is obvious that cell phones hold a large portion of human time in the home, inside the utility vehicles and everywhere. People tend to talk to their cell phones to human beings.
You are so right Accad. The other problem is they are getting too intelligent. I was speaking to my daughter about her sons school. It is Cairo Christian school. Bixby butted in and started talking about Cairo in Egypt
It is admirable to have these kids exposed to wider world and knowledge but they should be guided to acquire the right erudition and ethics.
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Living in Mexico for two years, we saw a lot of North American tourists. While having a great outside breakfast on a beautiful bright, warm day in Lorento, Baja Sur, we saw a family of four come and sit at a table near us.
The kids were maybe twelve and fifteen. Dad went up to order at the counter, and the rest of the family pulled out their phone or iPad and started typing away. I thought that they would quit when Dad came back to the table, but that didn’t happen.
Mom was busy on her iPad, no one had spoke since giving their order information to Dad. Here came Dad, he sat down, reached into his backpack, and pulled out his iPad.
How sad, pay all that money to come down to Mexico, have beautiful weather, great food, interesting people around you, and all they could manage was sticking their noses into technology and ignoring everything around them.
Twoscribe, that is such a sad account but I am sure it is not uncommon.. I think if I had witnessed that I would have found it had to restrain myself from saying something. . It is a crazy modern day issue and I am not sure if we really can fix it, however Dashnow has provided a good answer.
Thank you for sharing your observation, I enjoyed reading it.
All the best,
Judy