BACKlikeWEneverLEFT

“Shorty just text me, say she wanna sex me LOL :-)” A couple of words from the Trey Songz hit titled “LOL Smiley Face”. Even though that song is a couple of years, it signified the change in our culture. We went from using our cell phones and telephones as a way to talk to people we care about and loved to not using telephones at all and only using cell phones to send quick messages such as text messages. It’s even gotten to the point where we use abbreviations to make the message even quicker. Lol, brb, imo, wyd, etc… these are all examples of letter phrases used in the place of words to make sending the message easier for the user. And now with all mobile phone carriers allowing unlimited text as part of their plans, it doesn’t look like we will ever go back to the days of dialing numbers to speak to friends and families.

Yes I will admit, it is a lot more convenient to type a text message and send it, than to dial numbers to call someone and say what it is you need o tell them. But that’s only in situations where it’s a quick message or something that’s not that important. What you doin? Yes, it’s faster to text that than to call that. But trying to express how you feel to someone and sending 6 straight text messages about that is wayyyy different. That may require a phone call my friend.

And to me that’s one place where the generational gap is seen amongst young folk and older folk. The art of communication is lost amongst us younger folk quite simply because we don’t have to talk to each other. Ask any person under 30 how many calls they make a day and I guarantee a lot of them might say under 5. But I can bet my last dollar if you ask them how many text messages they send a day and they will say over 100. Older people know how to speak how they feel, elaborate on points and speak to people in a way that they will understand because they grew up their whole lives talking to people literally.

The art of communication is something that is lost with the generation of today and because of it a lot of problems arise. Fights and bullying are at an all time high because kids do not know how to express themselves to each other without a physical confrontation. Suicides are rising amongst people under 25 because they feel that they don’t have anybody to talk to about their problems or that the people they do tell just don’t understand or care. Young men and women do not know the proper way of courting each other because quite frankly they don’t know how to approach each other. You don’t know how many times in public, I have seen arguments start between men and women just off of a male trying to approach a woman. It seems childish and petty but it happens quite often.

Point is, that there is a very strong lack of communication amongst people today and it needs to be fixed. Take the time to call someone that you care about, because you never know what will happen. I text my mother and sister all the time, but I also call them just as much. Sometimes, you just hearing the voice of someone you care for can soothe your anger or help calm you down in a hostile situation. Just think even in the tragedy of Trayvon Martin, even though racism I feel played the biggest part of the events that occurred that dreadful day, what played just as big a part is the lack of communication. Maybe if Trayvon was allowed to express how he felt or expressed how he felt to Zimmerman, maybe there is no altercation and maybe Trayvon goes his way and Zimmerman goes his way and none of the events ever take place. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, lets make sure that always remains the case