by Paula Stahl

Created on: December 13, 2008

The Youth of today are no more lost than the youth of any other generation. However, the culture they live in is loosing many things that are important, and the youth brought up in that culture are a mere reflection of this fact.

I saw an advertisement the other day that was showing a series of photographs. One of the photos was a picture of 4 teenage girls all sitting in a row on a bench, on a beautiful summer day in a park. Each of them, had a cell phone and were on the phone talking to someone. A very profound picture. Here they are, all together, and almost as if each other's company, or the beautiful day and park were not enough to keep them occupied, they had to call another person to have a conversation. When I was growing up I would have been corrected for that behavior.....and told it was rude. If I had a friend over and got a phone call I had to tell the friend on the phone I had company and would call them back later. You see, you do not want to make the person you are face to face with feel as if they are not important, or boring to you. It is good manners. It is respect. It is what we used to call " common courteously". Yet, I guess today it is the normal behavior, and friends accept it and are not offended by it.

To drive the idea home even further, I went to one of my son's basketball games the other night. Beside me on the bleachers, was a young girl who had the newest hand held electronic device. It was not a phone, but a little touch screen with a pencil tool and keyboard attached. She could listen to music, and, she could text message her friends with it. She sat there messaging people during the game. About three rows up behind us, was a another girl she kept turning around and smiling at, then she would text again. It took me a bit to realize, they were text messaging each other.
Now, the gym was not crowded on this particular night. There were plenty of empty seats by both girls. They could have been sitting beside each other, having a real conversation with eye contact and nudges and giggles, the way young girls have done for centuries.

What is it that makes our youth now prefer to communicate through devices, even over actual and real face to face conversation? Is it the newness and the novelty of the little electronic devices? Are they more fascinating than real human interaction? If so what does that say about humans and how we have developed mentally if machines are more entertaining? Is it a fad, that will have its time and fade away?
Or,

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