A real life situation that happened to me recently inspired me to write this article.

We all glory in benefits of social networks and their contribution as global connectors. However, that new way of communication is different - and not always in a positive sense.

Thumbs up - and everything is said? 

Where Are You?

At first glance this seems to be an easily answered question.

But in a world where Google maps knows the way home better than we do, where GPS software replaces our sense of orientation and where we share our real-time location by simply clicking on a button, in a world like that it may become a tough task to reply (with words) to that question. 

Should we blame social media for the loss of our verbal skills?

Where Are You? A Real Life Situation 

I was relaxing at the beach when I witnessed the following conversation.

Three youngsters had just arrived. They were standing close to me when one of them started a conversation on his phone.

"Hi! We are here ... Yeah well HERE .... at the beach. Where are you? ... Raise your arm, maybe then I can see you (Note Marly: the beach is like 2km long and there were hundreds of people at that point of time) ... Raise it again... Hmmmm... Can't see you... Well you know what: take a couple of pictures from the places around you and send them via Whatsapp. We'll wait here..." 

I couldn't believe it. 

What about the fact that you were entering the beach through the sinistral main entrance, currently standing next to a huge flagpole, approximately 50m from a lifeguard station?

Instead of analyzing the situation and trying to explain it with words for that young guy it was much easier to simply unplug his brain and rely on an application.

Are we dumbing down? 

Are these trends our future of communication? May this behavior lead to a general loss of cognitive and communicative abilities?

I am neither a medical scientist nor a psychologist, but what I perceive in my immediate vicinity in that context really scares me.

What do you believe? Do these channels and their reduced linguistic frames have a negative impact on the adolescent generation? 

This story is actually another good argument for steemit. Instead of simply publishing status updates, funny faces with dog's noses or tiny pieces of useless information, the network encourages us to impress through verbal skills, train our linguistic abilities, write quality content, stand out through creativity and tell thought-provoking stories.

Thumbs up for steemit though :-)

Wish you a great Monday,
Marly - 

PS: Am I the only person on this planet who hasn't EVER opened a snapchat or pokemon application? I swear I haven't, and I actually don't believe that I missed a thing.

Picture sources:
title: forumserver.twoplustwo.com; quote: pinterest.com; snapchat: smartmania.cz