I recently had the opportunity to catch up with one of my former college professors, and one of his comments struck me as quite odd.  I don’t remember the quote verbatim, but it was something along the lines of “Kids today have a hard time discussing topics and communicating ideas in class, more so than when you were here…”  You get the picture.

This statement caught me off guard for two reasons:

1.  I don’t recall being especially outspoken in any of his classes.

2.  I guess I didn’t realize how much technology had improved from “when I was in school, when we had to walk uphill, both ways, barefoot, in the snow…”

I quickly gathered my thoughts, and we began to discuss how communication between teens and young adults has shifted over these last few years.  Technology such as facebook, twitter, texting, and blogs were all either in their early stages, or not yet available.  Hell, cell phones in general didn’t become prevalent on campus until my junior year (2002).

Today, almost every student has a laptop/notebook in front of them with wifi access to the internet as they sit in class.  Kids no longer talk on cell phones, they text.  Everything is becoming a typing oriented.  Emails, RSS feeds for news, texting, status updates, tweets, you name it, is all keyboard intensive.

Don’t get me wrong, this is all wonderful technology that can, and does, make our lives easier.  But I feel at times, we (myself included, I’m as guilty as the next guy) become too dependent on technology to communicate in our daily lives.  We need to, from time to time, take a step back and consider that all the wonderful advancements in technology we have been witness to should enhance our day to day lives, not consume them.  I might be burned at the stake, preaching about less tech. on a tech. blog, oh well.  I’ll get over it.

If you want a fun little “challenge”, go on vacation for a week.  Try a cruise to some warm, tropical location.  The vacation part will be a blast, but it’s amazing how the week away from cell phones, computers, and TV can be a welcome relief.  Try it, you just might like it.

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