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.