Technology Tuesday - Why messaging makes your brain melt

Welcome to the first Technology Tuesday, the day where I talk about all things related to technology since that stuff is interesting...

Today's Topic: Why messaging does not actually make your brain melt, but does make you terrible at real life conversations. (I had no idea how to title this post.)

I dunno if you've heard, (just maybe... I mean, it's possible you missed it.), but a rather massive amount of people in the world do this thing where they press little buttons on a mobile device, (or more recently, just fondle the damned thing.), in order to send each other messages. Apparently this "messaging" is taking the world by storm. I personally don't believe it'll take off. Next you'll be telling me that we'll have metal boxes in our homes that show us stories or cars that drive themselves.

Anyways, that's not what I wanted to talk about today. (As cool as those things are.) My good friend Yestin Johnson (@yestinj) and I started talking about a rather interesting social issue that's been arising as a result of the messaging that's going on these days is that younger generations of people are beginning to lose touch with the finer nuances of actual face to face conversation. (Yes, that means if you're old, you are entirely safe. Your kids aren't though...)

Bearing in mind that the original article that brought this topic to my interest was actually brought to my attention in one of my final school exams (but so was Hatsune Miku ^_^), so you will have to excuse me for paraphrasing. As I remember it, the article spoke about how the younger generations that were growing up with this easily accessible technology and social media were developing in ways different to previous generations. They found that among other things, these younger generations were losing the ability to take note of social cue's such as vocal tone and body language and even emotional understanding. (basically, they're becoming robots. Just kidding.)

As I remember it, the article discussed the fact that these younger generations were losing the ability to differentiate the emotions of shock, anger, fear and excitement, due to their typically similar associated facial expressions. I dunno about you, but when I'm excited and someone asks why I'm angry, that's a bit confusing...

But it's not all doom and gloom. An article on the blog Nvate found here speaks about this subject in more depth, (and perhaps less humorously), than myself and makes note of the fact that the internet has become a great place for the development of social skills in the shy and those uncomfortable in public situations, provided that they do not spend all their time doing so online. The key, as I always say, is moderation.

So my advice is simple, be a good parent and take an active part in your kids life and, most importantly, help them to understand that, as cool as the internet is, real living happens in the real world. Here's a fun song from Rhett&Link to help get the message across.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you have an AWESOME day. Got anything to add or suggest, do so in the comments, maybe I'll even talk about it in my next blog post.

Anyways, that's enough out of me. Adiós amigos.