Definitions of Communication (Communicate 1.1.1)

I'm 33 years old.  The internet was really coming into its own when I was in high school and college.  I didn't have a cell phone or send a text message until I was 21.  I opened a Facebook account at 26.  It's difficult to say how technology has affected my communication skills because I've lived my entire adult life with technological communication.  I've always thought that I exist in this technological "sweet spot," too; I'm young enough to understand technology, to be technologically literate, but old enough not to have had social media when I was a foolish teenager.

Communication via technology (text messages, social media, email, etc.) is an embarrassingly large part of my life, though--one that I would like to get away from in some fashion.  I actually had a smartphone about four years ago, and I got rid of it because I was such an addict.  When I was hanging out with friends or my husband, I'd be looking at the phone.  When it would ding to tell me that I had a new message or email, I would stop whatever it was that I was doing to check that message.  I felt naked without the phone.  My addiction was unproductive and was annoying to the people around me.  After about a year of having the smartphone, I got rid of it because I didn't like what I was becoming with it.

Now, that's not to say that I've resigned from all technological communication.  I still email and use Instagram and Facebook. But I try now to use these virtual tools as a way, as Sherry Turkle suggests in her TED talk, to live a better life in the real world.  So, yes, I might post a cute picture of my kids to Instagram so that my friends and parents can keep up with what they're doing, but I make a conscious effort to then put down the ipod and be fully present with my children.  I might create a Postagram of a picture for my grandmother who is not ever on the web, but that Postagram, those Instagram pictures and communications like those--Facebook happy birthday wishes or emoji texts to my sister to wish her good luck on her math test--should not exist alone.  I have made efforts in my personal life to carve out time for real conversations with friends, to write a hand-written thank you note, to be present with my family and others when we are together.  I might have to send them a text to figure out which restaurant we'll go to for lunch, but once we're there, I want to be present with my company.

These changes in communication are already changing communication within the classroom, too.  Today's students are extremely plugged-in.  They're texting and posting to the newest social media platform constantly.  As a result, they desire communication that is brief and bare-bones.  This style of communication can be dangerous as teenagers are losing many of the necessary communication skills that used to be second-nature for students: making eye contact, speaking eloquently, developing a full, well thought out idea.  We need to make efforts to encourage teenagers to use social media and technology as a tool to make their real lives better (and not the other way around), and we can only do so if we model that behavior ourselves.