Thoughts From an Old Fogey

I just wonder what would happen if, like for a month, everyone stopped using Facebook, Twitter, email and text. Can you imagine? For most of us the thought is excruciating. I literally don’t know if I could do it. I’m not on FB and could easily quit Twitter, but email and text? That would mean I might actually have to walk down the hall to one of the other offices. What would I do if I needed to ask my wife something from one end of the house to the other? I can’t hear her from that far away. What if I had to actually call someone on the phone? I might not be able to hang up whenever I want. I might not be able to multi-task. I might wind up in a conversation.

Are we missing something?

And how much conflict happens because of our near exclusive use of written communication at this point. How many characters of our texts are used to correct a misunderstanding from the previous one? How long will we carry on a text conversation or back and forth emails all to settle something misunderstood due to the nature of written communication? I mean here we are trying to correct an error with the same tool that caused the error in the first place. Next thing you know we have a mess that might even be hard to fix with a "sit down." When will we ever realize that written communication is vastly inferior to verbal communication? We are such idiots sometimes.

What if we just stopped? What if we said no more texts, at least… for like a month? For a week or two, we’d communicate less probably. We’d just not ask or not tell or not talk. But eventually we might actually call a friend or even stop by their house to ask a question or relay some information. We might drop by just to say Hi or to ask verbally, face to face, if the other person is going to this or that event or how their sick grandma is doing. We might even see something in the other person’s eye and hear something in their voice. We might experience a relationship that is a little more multi-sensory and perhaps soulful than what can be gained out of reading typed characters on a phone or computer.

And this old fogey is as guilty as anyone! I text constantly. I probably send and receive a hundred emails a day! For heaven's sake, I even tweet!

Am I seriously suggesting that I would stop all this? Of course not. I mean, not to text is so 90’s.  I just can’t imagine not being able to text my wife, “Hey hon, when is dinner?” Okay, so what’s reasonably imaginable for me on this topic? Well, maybe I could make a personal commitment that the next time something even starts to be misunderstood, I actually call. Could I do that? Yes. Will I do that? Only if I’m smart. Maybe I could just remember that all this is true and therefore make a point of having more verbal conversations one way or another. Maybe I could just keep all this in mind and be more intentional about stopping by sometimes… and calling sometimes... and putting my phone away sometimes while I'm talking to somebody in person.

Seriously people… we are missing something with all our emails and texts and postings. I see the good in those things too, believe me. I can’t imagine having to call every person to schedule a meeting, and then calling them all back if the last guy can’t make it at that time or whatever. Ugh. And I realize even the Apostles used letters to communicate with the churches. Heck, here I sit writing a blog instead of talking to someone.

So what am I saying? I’m saying there’s a danger here to watch out for, and frankly, I see it exacerbated (would I use that word verbally?) in the younger generation BIG TIME. See, they didn’t spend 75% of their lifetime without most of these things as have I. This is not all relatively new to them. They had these things through their developmental years. They’ve never experienced life without text, for instance. And folks… I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but most younger people have at least a little bit of trouble with face to face conversation. If you don’t know this, just try carrying on an actual conversation with someone under twenty, and most of the time you’ll get nowhere… unless perhaps they were home schooled (a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that some people still bring up their kids in a way that is counter-cultural and thereby might have spared them from the generality of what I’m saying).

Hear ye, hear ye… all you younger people especially… This old fogey hereby encourages you to work on your verbal communication skills by leaving your phone in your pocket more often. Consider a fast from text, email, etc. just to prove you can do it. Try talking more. I don’t know… just think about it, will you?