Loss of Social Skills

Everything happens in balance, you have to give something to get something. In the case of communication technology, we trade in our social skills in order to have conversations with anybody around the world at the drop of a dime. Like any skill that goes unpracticed, social skills deteriorate as people talk face-to-face on fewer occasions. In many forms of communication technology, such as texting and instant messaging, it is almost impossible to use sarcasm and other humorous communication through screens because often times the person on the other side will misinterpret what is being said. It is also tough to stress a point because the tone and intensity of what the person is saying is usually only expressible through punctuation, which also happens to have multiple meanings. 

Children who are growing up in the technology-based community we have implemented are the most affected by the epidemic of not being able to hold a conversation. According to an article published by the Huffington Post, “actual conversation is becoming a thing of the past”(1). By "actual conversation," the author of this article means that there is no longer any connection between two individuals who are communicating because they are using screens as a medium of transmission. In the article, Melissa Ortega, a child psychologist at New York’s Child Mind Institute, notes that high school students “check their phones constantly” and suggests that the students check their phones so often as an “avoidance strategy.” Ortega also notices that the students “don’t know how to handle conflict face to face” and have issues in “small talk situations”(1). These are some of the signs that our social skills are degrading at a rapid rate. If we use our phones as a crutch because we are uncomfortable when it comes to small talk, we have a major problem. Small talk is one of the main ways that individuals have connected with others. The article also suggests that because of the incorporation of the internet into our daily lives, there are attention deficits that are being formed. Information is being shoved so rapidly into our brains that we hare having issues with patience and paying attention.

Lack of emotional engagement to a conversation

We live in a world where we can communicate with anybody as many times as we want with ease. This means having conversations with families who might live in different countries, who a person might only get to see once every few years, are can now be made on a daily basis. The communication might be more frequent but according to an article that was covered by Deseret News, the “quality of that communication may be weaker”. The study also suggests that “kids who spend more time [texting or instant messaging through a] screen than with other kids or adults can struggle [when it comes to] understand[ing] emotions and creating strong relationships.” In the same article Denise Daniels, a parenting expert and pediatric nurse, says that “for children, the overuse of technology to communicate affects the brain.” Further explaining her point, Daniels points out that the children who are overexposed to communications technology “lose empathy.” 

Katie Davis, a researcher whose work is also covered in the article, makes the comment that because of the increased amount of communication taking place through technology, adults and children alike are finding it “easier to communicate through a screen”(1). A psychologist named Jim Taylor claims that “children and parents are speaking very different languages now” in the article (1). He states that Parents are not as versed in the digital language, and that “the dinner table talk can suddenly be like someone speaking Spanish to someone who doesn’t” when they have conversations with their children (1). In other words, children and parents are unable to properly pass their ideas and opinions to one another when talking at a dinner table setting. This is because children nowadays are being raised on a basis of mass communication and technology, and the idea that technology is faster and easier is being embedded into their heads at a young age. 

Biologically, humans are naturally wired to adapt to conversations that occur between two people. This includes reading and responding to facial expressions, reading and using body language, and understanding and reacting to pitch and intensity of a voice. Our minds are being hotwired at an early age to only care about passing information because of an early overexposure to communication technology. The change in our brains makes communicating face to face more uncomfortable because we are slowly losing our abilities to read and react to non-verbal stimulants.

Technology is Destroying our abilities to communicate

One of our world’s most powerful and advanced technologies is destroying the ways that people live. This technology is for communication. That’s right, the one thing that we constantly use to communicate is actually hindering our abilities to communicate. This paradox is quite understandable if you realize that we use communication technology to push ideas to one another more often than we actually speak. A fact sheet published the UnitedStates Department of Commerce states that a whopping 96 percent of working Americans use new communication technologies as a part of their daily life. That overwhelming percentage of users means that people are starting to communicate through a screen more than through personal means at an increasing rate.

 Through their massive use communication technologies pass information more efficiently and faster than through word-of-mouth. Although Technology seems to help connect people together, it has many negative effects including a loss of social skills, a lack of emotional engagement to a conversation, and a creation of detachment between conversers.