Put down the phone!” — a phrase commonly heard at dinner tables and general gatherings everywhere. Many lament that the current generation, so engrossed in their phones, is losing valuable face-to-face communication skills, always entranced by a virtual world. But I think there’s more to the story than that.
Is this generation really the first one to use a medium other than face-to-face communication? Was the past really full of constant conversation with those around us, and meaningful in-person interactions with strangers? I believe that we demonize cell phone usage more than is deserved.
Take commuter trains for example. In the past, before cell phones, they weren’t always filled with engaging conversations, but instead newspapers, Walkmans, magazines, and books.
There are plenty of people (like the person who wrote this article) who bring up the point newspapers are fundamentally different than cell phones. While that is all true, cell phones provide everything newspapers do, and more. Those who are interested in current events will seek that information out, whether it’s in a newspaper or a news app. Changing the medium from which people receive information is not an inherently bad thing.
The journal Social Work Today says that “studies have shown that people actually are becoming more social and more interactive with others, but the style of that communication has changed so that we’re not meeting face-to-face as often as we used to”
When you consider all of the social media platforms available, it only makes sense that we’re more connected than ever. There are countless ways to keep in contact with people. I, for one, have been guilty of sending Snapchats to someone while simultaneously messaging them. So, just because we are choosing other methods of communication over the conventional face-to-face conversation doesn’t mean we’re losing the ability to communicate altogether.
Of course, using a cell phone during dinner instead of engaging with the people you’re sitting next to is rude, but that’s not the cell phone’s fault. That’s just a person with bad manners. As long as we have meaningful connections with people on a regular basis, there’s no need to demonize the way we choose to do it.
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