Tuesday, November 09, 2004

The Ball State Daily News - BEWILDERED SOCIETY: Communication flaws evident in culture:

We waste a lot of time in conversation.

Yeah - we're weird like that.

In these high speed, "broadband" times that drive our economy, our culture and our lives, it seems as if humans no longer listen to each other.

Nope - we simply don't give a damn. For all intensive purposes, we are all deaf to our surroundings.

That does explain why you are reading this.

At any rate, there is a funny thing to notice about our language, or at least how we use it nowadays.

We don't.

Perhaps that is the root of a lot of our problems, too.

Think about your daily encounters with friends, family, professors and strangers. Listen in your head to what is said, what is exchanged.

Does it really make sense?

"What's up," as previously written, has a wide variety of meaning, purposes and uses.

The common response, it seems these days, is now "Not much."

Not much.

What in the hell does that mean?

Undoubtedly, at least in my conversations, a follow-up question such as "How have you been?" has to be used for further clarification.

At this point, a somewhat-clear answer ("Good, you?") is given and conversation moves forward to something more sophisticated.

"So what is going on?"

Wow. We're quick.

That was 4.68 seconds of my life shot to the depths of conversation hell.

Sort of like text messaging.

When you look at it, we waste a lot of time in life holding such inutile conversation when we really could be getting to the bottom of things.

The fact of the matter is, we say a lot of things we don't mean. In the elementary book of terms: We are all big, fat, stinking poopy-heads.

Shame on us.

When was the last time you said "How are you?" to someone, and honestly, completely and wholeheartedly cared what their response was.

I bet it's few and far between.

Proof here lies within someone saying something other than an expected typical response.

It catches a lot of us off guard when it happens.

Have you ever heard someone respond negatively to your inquiry, only for you to habitually come back with "Good, good!"? This after realizing that they, indeed, said that their life was not so good.

Embarrassing.

Yet, also true.

Now, it is hard to break habit, and "What's up" and similar terms are catch phrases that mean to us what "Heyyyyyy!" and "Dude" meant to our parents.

These phrases and are a part of our culture, our language and our generation.

Albeit, some of us would have "douche bag" slightly more associated with our generation than others.

At the same time, that does not mean that as people we should not be consistently attempting to raise our communication skills.

Communication can be a live-saver, but it can just as easily be a problematic device when used inefficiently.

Say what you feel, but know what you say. However, for the love of all things real, please mean it.

Otherwise, all you are really saying has already been said.

And what's that?

Not much.

#posted by Dave 3:04:00 AM

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