An addendum to last post

This is an addendum, if you will, referencing my previous post “College Grad Expectations Beyond the Paper.”

When thinking about poor communication skills in today’s college grads, I can’t help but think of the impact of technology and its ability to hinder some of those basic communication skills.  Remember a day in age when people picked up the phone to communicate with someone?  Or how about that time when we wrote out thoughtful, complete words and sentences in composing a letter or postcard of a sort to communicate with loved ones, friends or pen pals?  Better yet, remember when we used to go knock on someone’s door to ask for a cup of sugar, see if little Johnny could come out and play or perhaps to simply say ‘hello’ with a basket of cookies in hand?  In this day in age, we've become subjected to convenience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, however one has to sit back and ask themselves, to what expense? 

I’m reminded of a distant, younger (in her late teens) relative of mine and her painstaking shyness in public places and communicating face to face with people.  Difficult to watch at some points, I’m amazed at how soft spoken and short she is with, not just the public, but with family members as well, myself included.  On the contrary and to my complete surprise, put this young lady behind a keyboard and it’s as if she was an outgoing, extremely popular and a highly confident person.  The point is, I do believe that technology is a crutch for so many, especially those born in the late 80’s and beyond, to disengage with the real world.  With the advent of online learning, it wouldn't surprise me if some college students pushed the limits, avoiding face to face/verbal communication correspondences and enrolling in as many online classes as possible, fearful of that student/teacher interaction on campus.   No wonder employers are disappointed.