THE LOST ART OF COMMUNICATION

Here we are in the year 2020. Have you noticed how communication skills have plummeted?

It’s true that when I was a child my Aunt Fannie would oft insist, “Children should be seen and not heard.” While she wanted the children in the room to stay out of her adult conversations, it was kind of difficult to join in anyway since she and the others were mixing Yiddish in with their English. That was the easiest way to keep us from interrupting their talks, yet, we sat, listened and learned about adult conversations, and picked up some Yiddish expressions along the way.

Nowadays, “talking” for many, especially the youth, is all done with fingers on gadgets. Cell phones and social media are as common as cereal for breakfast.

Wouldn’t you agree that face-to-face communication has taken a hit? I laugh when one of our children says they talked to another. I say almost incredulously, “really?” Truthfully, the answer is no, not really. They then divulge that it was by text or email.

It’s now commonplace to be at a dinner table with six or more cell phones at work. Admittedly, it’s addictive and we marvel at how we lived without cell phones or, for that matter, how the generations before us lived without any telephone access.

In my January 9, 2018 blog post, https://www.sharonmarkcohen.com/blog/2018/1/9/it-hurts-to-write-a-letter, I bemoaned the loss of another form of communication, the hand-written letter.

If you refuse to write, please, please, at least talk to me…and not by typing on gadgets. I’m listening…I love a good conversation. You can even feel free to throw in a word or two in Yiddish.