Is new technology damaging our ability to communicate Fingers flying, we can blog (写博客), e-mail, and enter chat rooms. But, as we type our millions of words, something is being lost. As our virtual skills increase, I wonder if our ability to communicate using speech is on the decline.
Young people send me dozens of e-mails from schools and universities. They often attach long lists of questions, to which they want detailed response. Time is short, so my reply is usually that they can phone me and I"ll do my best to answer.
They very rarely do, at least partly because their oral and telephone skills are less developed than their ability to type, text and e-mail. Yet to adapt to an old business saying, a meeting is worth five phone calls and a phone call is worth five e-mails.
Direct communication can quickly lead to bonding and trust. People are more likely to reveal what they are thinking when they actually speak to another person. Most are wary of committing themselves in writing.
The great tragedy, of course, is that the phone was invented before the computer. If it had been the other way around, Internet forums would now be filled with the news: "Have you heard (type, type, type) There is this amazing new device (type, type). Now you can talk directly with people (type, type, type). Without all this typing." Marketing would do the rest and colleges would be rushing to develop new courses in telephone skills.
But, as it is, we are stuck with the supremacy of the typed word and it is getting in the way of our ability to look people in the eye and talk. We should reconsider the technology in which the speed of our fingers is more important than the quality of our voices. According to the author, young people today don"t ______.