A Speechless Generation

C/C Joel Rodriguez
Dr. Holt
English 103, T1
23 Jan 2014
A Speechless Generation
Dining rooms aren’t actually used for family dining any more. Living rooms aren’t held for family memories anymore. A porch in this era rarely holds any conversations. These rooms have become ghost rooms in many American households. Not to mention, when family and friends make use of these rooms, they are more than likely to be holding a phone, tablet, or remote control. We might as well should go ahead and change the name of all these rooms to “stare at a screen room.” Social Networking has made many impossible things become part of our daily lives. Now a days, talking with someone all the way in china has become something we could all do on a daily basis, whereas 5 years ago people would have had to dig a whole all the way from America to China. Although Social networking has advance the reach of our communication and the spread of ideas; it has also diminished social interaction with close family and friends and created a generation of humans that lack basic social skills.
Thousands of times I have found myself sitting at a table where every single person is on some sort of electronic device, and physical conversation is the last thing on anyone’s mind. I find this to be one of the many effects of Social networking; it has made it insanely easy to communicate with literally anyone that humans now find verbal conversation unnecessary or a drag. In some instances humans prefer to text a person that is about 10 feet away, because actual physical conversation seems too much of a physical stress. But can we blame our new generation for acting this way?
Students in all levels are taught to do all things through networking and computers. Ultimately this has caused them to physically interact with one another less and less. Today, friends have group chats, rather than phone calls. Classes many times don’t even require a physical attendance because you can literally earn a degree at the comfort of your home. Students can get through most of their lives without having to ever leave their electronic device or even talk to a real human being. Online ordering takes care of almost any human need; social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, etc.) can get us in touch with any of our relatives or friends by just logging in. Social Networking has made the human mind think that physical interaction is almost an unnecessary thing.
As time passes by, humans are starting to loose communication skills and being socially awkward is more of a common thing to see. According to Forbes Magazine only about 7% of all communication is verbal, and not only that but many studies have showed that our population will continue to become more unsociable (Haley). Social Networking has not only made humans more likely to become socially awkward but a study by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, showed that high school students that frequently use social media are more likely to get into fights and serious arguments. (Technology Can Have Positive and Negative Impact on Social Interactions.) Reason being, that the lack of warmth and passion that physical interaction with a human being provides is not felt by the Social networking addict; causing them to forget how to interact with each other. In fact many of those who find themselves to have more social media relationships than physical relationships have fallen under depression. Facebook provides us with a perfect example, showing us that the average 18-24 year old American has about 510 friends on Facebook, yet if we were to ask them how many feel they actually have at least two real friends, we find that many would answer with a no (Marketing Charts). Not only that but many would answer by saying that in actual life, they feel socially left out. Proving the point that online relationships will never match up to that unique bond two human beings share by interacting with themselves physically and verbally on a daily basis.
I can personally testify that Social Networking has taken a toll on my personal relationships. My lifelong friends and I used to hang out a lot more when all the different types of Social networks didn’t exist. Not only would we get together more often but we were a closer group; the physical and verbal interactions that we had with each other on a daily basis made us a stronger. As we started to grow the era of Social Networking invaded our group and slowly I noticed how it started to separate us. Now all our conversations were being held through a group chat. It made my friends realize that finding out how our days had gone didn’t mean that we had to drive to each other’s house. Even when we did get together I notice it wasn’t going to be the same, for the screen of an electronic device had caught their attention.
Many would say that Social networking has increased our communication skills by allowing us to interact and spread ideas with people half way across the world. Yes, indeed it has, but Social networking has caused us to forget that the most important social interacting we must have is with family and friends. If we, as humans, can’t even have a simple conversation with our own family and friends without looking through some electronic screen, how do we expect to interact with other people half way across the world? The most important skills that we must have are to be able to communicate physically with one another. No matter how frequently you text or message someone, it will never compare to the actual warmth and passion of a verbal conversation.
In conclusion I don’t believe social media is wrong. What is wrong is the way we human beings are miss using it by preferring to have an electronic conversation with someone that is a close by. Social Networking was made to spread ideas and learn about different cultures around the world. It was created to gives us information about places and people we never even knew existed. The purpose of Social Networking shouldn’t be to replace physical conversations and make us unsociable. After all God, gave us dining rooms to have family dining, living rooms to actually create family memories, and a porch to hold infinite conversations.

Documentation C/C Testerman reviewed my essay for grammatical errors. C/C Rose checked my work for tense agreement and C/C Pedrick checked for sentence structure.