Can you hear me now?

    This is the communication age with multiple social media platforms, but how often do you actually connect with people? Sure, you might be connected online, but have you talked to any of those connections? Or did you just jab a "like" on a post and scroll on by? In this age of social media connection without actually connecting to each other, how connected are we really?

    In my experience this year with online schooling, people aren't actually willing to connect with each other and have a conversation. What's that all about? Is everyone so vain that they just want those likes and shares?

    Where is all of this vanity and lack of physical connection coming from? It is stemming from lots of places, but most commonly, I hear people say that their parents let them spend too much time online, watching TV, playing video games, etc. Most of these people don't even realize that this is what has caused such a disconnect in their lives. What they do say is actually very little. I've asked dozens of 18-30 y/o's and they all did say that their parents both worked all the time. They spent hours alone before and after school. Many had parents that worked more than 1 job, meaning they were alone as kids/teens on the weekends too. With no one at home to teach them how to interact with others, this younger generation has been crippled into being so independent that they won't even look up from their phones to talk to each other. This solidarity and "hermit"-like behavior is not good for people, nor the overall economy.

    On top of over-worked parents, how many parents do you know that willingly, and often, hand an iPad or phone to a child (sometimes as young as 2 years old) just to keep them quiet? This has become so commonplace, to placate your child until they are quiet, instead of taking the time to interact with them. Sitting them down in front of a TV, video game, or iPad just so that you can have some quiet time. Once in a while isn't so bad, it's the everyday occurrences of this that are the root cause of the problem.

For example:

     I conducted a social media experiment using my own profile on the book-of-faces. I went into all of the groups that I am a part of and posed a question to the entire group. Some of the groups I got answers to my questions, some got no answers at all. Of the posts that got no answers, I had at minimum 50+ "likes" or "following" comments on each of my posts, but no actual answer or attempted answer to my question.

    In the group posts that did receive answers, almost all of the substantial answers came from users that range in age from 35-75 y/o. These answers not only provided exact names of products they were recommending but also links to those items. Most importantly they were answers that included information about why that particular user likes that particular product. There were a few short answers to those questions from the under 35 crowd, but there was no substance to those answers.

    To expand on the lack of substantial information: One of my questions was "Does anyone have a recommendation on a daily planner with moveable pages?". The few answers I got from the under 35 age group were quite literally just a link to an Amazon sold product with no information about the product in their own words. 4 of those links were within the top 10 when you search on Amazon for "customizable day planner".

    The younger generation's lack of ability to communicate with others face to face is astounding. I'm not saying that the entire generation is handicapped, but there are far more people under 30 that don't know how to conduct themselves in an interview, much less how to properly speak. How do you kids expect to get a job if you can't even use the most basic communication skill? And it's not just speech either, there's body language, facial expressions, and your perceived presence.