For me starting in mid 2011 I started noticing a slight change among my friends and peers. As I was departing my 20's and opening a new chapter on my life. I started to feel my friends ( some close and some distant ) change. They were changing in a way that I didn't quite understand at the time. The more time past I just wrote it off as people getting married off, having kids and opening new doors themselves.
Now it's 2013 and I see this pulling back spreading into the slightly younger generation. I'm talking about the people who have become so socially inept that the only outlet they have is Facebook or other electronic outlet accessed by a device. They converse by typing, they communicate by IM, SMS, EMAIL and a bunch of other acronyms that 10 years ago meant nothing. This type of social decline, I feel, is ruining the worlds youth. The people who accelerate in life will most certainly have a well rounded communications skill set. Kids listen up: It is important to know how to communicate face to face, be able to convey emotion and passion for whatever you are talking about. You will not achieve this skill set sitting behind a computer, playing video games, texting your friends or being a recluse to society. I urge you PLEASE go out, talk to a teacher, a peer, a hitch hiker or even a bum for god sakes.
Just the other day I nice elderly woman called into the shop to make an appointment for her grand-son. We chatted it up literally about nothing for a good 10 minutes. The day of the appointment the young man came in and I found out he was almost 27 years old! He was the product of 15 years of playing video games and having very little interaction with the 'outside world'. The comfort zone for him certainly was not looking me in the eye and telling me what weird noise his car was making that day. Fortunately for him, I got the 411 on his car from his grandmother. After handing over his keys out came the cell phone and gaming noises started to fill the room quickly. I really felt bad for this chap. Somehow along the way between my Atari 2600, my 286 PC and my Nintendo my parents taught me to limit my time on these things.
It's not just video games harboring these people. It's anyone who solely uses an emotionless type of communication. Somehow I've made a connection from these socially awkward people to their commitment levels also. More people will say maybe 100% of the time to any commitments so that in the event that a World of Warcraft showdown is going on they have the opportunity to do absolutely nothing with their day. Somehow via electronic communications it has been socially acceptable to be flaky as hell.
People of technology based communications (This means you!): Be a better person, eliminate 'maybe' from your Facebook event responses. Commit and be a reliable person. Yes or no and then execution, it's really that simple. Your friends will thank you and you can be that guy or gal who is rewarded with a great relationship with your peers. ( and maybe even a call from Jail to bail them out )
Lets help these people by picking up the phone next time. Go out and do something......ANYTHING
/Rant
