Of Communication in the Electronic Age

Thoughtful speaking and common courtesy is a still important, but less practiced, factor in creating a better future. More people take interest in Roswell's purported UFO's or Elvis sightings than in maintaining civility and decorum as part of their daily lives. As each generation expects less and less in terms of courtesy, soon "thank you" and "excuse me" will be considered Old English.

That which separates humans from other forms of life have traditionally been our ability to reason, our vast avenues of expression through language and our opposable thumbs. Well, as common sense becomes more and more a thing of the past, and linguistic abilities slowly descend to mere grunts of recognition and learned statements used in hopes of obtaining a reward (be it money, affection or position etc.), soon all that will make us unique will be our thumbs, (and I have seen a cat with thumbs so...). I pity the day when we have need to celebrate "We're Human, See Our Thumbs Day".

Although I must confess that I still hear people use please and thank you, I have noted that my use of "pardon me" rather than saying "what" raises eyebrows, causes snickering and elicits a look that clearly states, "you think you’re special don’t you." Correct me if I am wrong but was "pardon me" not once an oft-used phrase in the English language?

It has been claimed that Women's Lib was the ice age of courtesy between men and women, such as door opening and pulling out chairs, which may or may not be true dependant upon perspective (and I simply cannot cover every subject known to man in this book, after all, what would its sequel be about). It seems; however, that gentlemen giving up their seat to the elderly, expectant mothers or small children has also fallen causality to the metamorphoses of genteel society. As I ride the subway to and from work daily one would think I would be accustomed to the scene; however, no matter how many times I see it I am always chagrined at the men, relatively young on the most part, who are seated as an elderly man or woman flail about; or an expectant mother nearly falls to the floor. For over a year I would take my train back two stops so that I would be assured of a seat as it pained me to not have one to offer in such instances. People, please, a little courtesy.

In this day and age of high tech, low human contact, those characteristics which we once depended so much upon, i.e., communication, respect and caring, have been replaced with E-mail, voice mail, pagers, caller I.D., internet, etc. Where once answering one's own phone was commonplace, we now have caller I.D. to let us know if our caller is worthy of lifting the receiver for. Anonymous people are living imaginary lives via the internet while the ability to be proactive and develop sincere relationships built on mutual respect and understanding becomes as obsolete as the Victrola (the word Victrola was not even included in my spell check).
Although progresses in technology is of paramount importance, what good comes of all the inventions in the world if the destruction of humanity is the consequence of this progress?

My daughter once had a best friend named Claudia. Together she and Claudia would scamper about the playground, climb hills, go for ice cream, whisper secrets and in general were inseparable. Now, however, Claudia’s best friend is someone she plays with on the internet. As she pales in the darkness of her home, the scampering in the park has been replaced with interactive card games and comparisons of quizzes on the world wide web. The closest they come to playing hide and seek is a game called "Find the chat room where I am." Needless to say, this does not actually enhance the little darling's social skills. Sure her typing speed is equal to that of the most highly paid administrative assistant in the entire corporate world but she withers in the darkness of her own home.

Human contact, eye contact, these are building blocks in a sincere and real relationship. Sure, exchanging words are an important part of communications, but any fool can say or type what they WANT YOU TO KNOW rather that what they really feel. Does it even matter at present whether our converser is sincere - after all, if we are unable to ascertain their sincerity, often found through looking one in the eyes, inevitably we become numb to whether it matters at all.