With so many distractions among us it has become difficult to have a conversation without the buzzing of a phone or even checking your phone to ‘Google’ something. The Internet and social media have given people the ability to multitask. Although multitasking may be a good skill to have, are people actually ‘present’ in their conversations? The technological age we live in has caused some people to find it more difficult to talk to others. We are all so busy having full conversations through text messaging, Facebook, email and other social media or Internet hubs, that we have forgotten how to communicate face-to-face.
I believe that the Internet is to blame for people of my generation having communication issues. Although we may be able to communicate perfectly on paper, it has become almost painful to talk face-to-face. Everything we do can be done virtually, which I think is a great thing, but we need to get those imperative communication skills back.
In my opinion, it all dates back to the days when we would scroll down our buddy list on AOL or AIM and start talking to our closest friend. A typical conversation would sound like, “John: ‘hey, wasssup?’ Jane: ‘nmu?’ John: ‘nm jc’ Jane: ‘cool!!!!'” Looking back, when I spoke to my peers it was very similar to this. A conversation, without substance. And this was only the beginning.
It has become difficult to communicate with others with so many distractions. When having a genuine conversation with someone and they keep looking down at their phone and texting it becomes very distracting. By putting my phone away and actually being there in the conversation I am going to try to get those vital skills back that I have slowly lost within the age of the Internet.