Communication in the 21st Century

Without a doubt, communication has changed drastically in the last 20 years. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to have a conversation with someone that lived in a different state, then you’d have to dial the number on a phone and see if the person would pick up. Or, you could also go and talk to your neighbor or someone who lived in close proximities to you. Now however, computers and cell phones have revolutionized communication. With social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, we no longer have to call people if we want to talk to them. We merely have to send them a “Tweet” or write on their wall. We also don’t need any sort of face to face interaction either since the Internet provides us with all we need to know about a person. Cell phones have also given us the liberty of texting. Instead of calling someone and wasting our precious vocal chords, we just need to type our message, send it, and we can be assured that the person will receive it. Communication has gone viral, for the most part. Technology does all our thinking and talking for us. It has even created its own language. Teachers are far too aware of the notorious texting language that includes such phrases such as “lol” (laughing out loud) and “ily” (I love you). What does all this mean for us? It means that our communication is becoming less and less personal with the more new antics we discover we can use. We know there is a problem when we are chatting on Facebook with someone who is in the same room as us.