Communication: Learn it or lose it

If you recall anything from the communication class you took to fill your comm. requirement, you may remember that in addition to giving a public speech that you barely survived, your professor stressed that communication is key, and not just because you were in a communication class.

It is arguable in today's world that communication is a dying art. The era of texting, Facebook and the iPad has made us more dependent on technology than ever. Dr. Christopher Bell, Director of the Excel Oral Communication Center, believes so.

"The Internet is the ultimate in double-edged swords," he said. On the one hand, it has a vast and remarkable ability to connect us in ways that could never have been possible even 15 years ago…On the other hand, it is a vehicle for everything that is wrong in the world, not just in our country, but worldwide. It is an unprecedented transmission mode for hate, for the degradation of people, for the banal and the insipid and the destructive. And, along with text messaging, it is responsible for the alarmingly rapid decay of written and oral communication skills in a way that should make us all very, very nervous."

According to an article on cracked.com about interpersonal communication, there are several things enough of which we no longer have in order to communicate effectively.  The article claims we need:

-More annoying people: These people keep us in check, and help build up a tolerance towards life. If we are no longer able to stand next to someone smacking gum for five minutes we won't be able to talk to them and build a relationship.

-Texting is not a good way to communicate: Texting destroys grammar and the need to communicate on a good conversational basis. It also enables us to avoid having all the awkward heart-to-heart conversations that are required to keep relationships intact. People have become so averse to interacting with others they can even order food via texting. Zingle is a message ordering system that enables restaurant customers to text in their orders. UCCS Student Lindsay Lohr said, "It illuminates the purpose of communicating with other people. It may make the restaurant more money but people work for tips and some have to make their livelihood that way."

-Having 300 online friends doesn't mean you actually have any friends: Your personality can be whatever you want when you can type it out in misconstrued sarcasm, with "lol"s…so everyone knows you're funny.

-Did we mention we feel sorry for ourselves? Now that you can let everyone know about everything you are doing every second of your life you can post about how it all makes you feel. Which means you are going to tell us how you feel. And that sucks.

If Bell could tell his students one thing about communication it would be, "…that their generation has got to do everything in their power to scrub the word ‘like' from existence. Because, like, when, like, you, like, say ‘like' like, every other word, like, you, like, sound like, like, you have no, like, idea, like, what you, like, are talking about, and, like, you don't even, like, notice it, but, like, people, like, think you're really, like, stupid. And I'm sure you're not stupid. Some of you are actually fairly brilliant. I wish you would learn to speak as though you are. As a general rule, if someone says ‘like' more than three times in a sentence, I am no longer interested in anything they have to say."