by Kathy Trower

Created on: May 20, 2010   Last Updated: May 21, 2010

Try to talk to  someone today and you have to wait until they either get off the phone or finish text. They are constantly busy and usually that does not leave much time for conversation.

I  dislike when I am talking to someone and their phone rings. They immediately grab the call, and forget completely what the real live conversation was.  It is like if you are not on the phone, you do not exist.

Where has the face to face conversation gone? I want to see your face when I talk to you, not the back of the phone.  I want  you to look in the eye, not my looking at your face engaged in a phone conversation.

If a person is engaged in a real live conversation, there's usually a loll.  They do not know what to say. They cannot use their phone shorthand to talk orally.

They use their conversation skills on the computer with emails and in chat rooms. There is no human associated with this, as it is a one way conversation.  By the time you get an answer, the subject has been changed.

When in a chat room, there is no rhyme or reason to talk to anyone. Comments fly and subjects are changed in seconds. No one seems to care what is said. No conversation lasts too long. There are only short forms of real words.

Bullying on the Internet is a way to others can be catty, without being seen. It is not a conversation, just a way to cyber bully someone. Does this hurt as much as a person doing this in person?  Yes, it really does.

At least in a conversation, people are cowardly to say something about someone to their face.  On the Internet, there is no f ear, and the conversation is publicized for everyone to see. It is an easy and mean way to spread gossip and slander another person.

Conversations assist in thanking someone for a gift, thought, or even a gesture. Today there is no real live conversation in doing this. If you are lucky, you might get an impersonal email. You cannot see the person's face or hear their words of thanks.

School students learn to log everything in a journal, but cannot communicate their thoughts out loud. Writing has become a substitute for conversing in schools. Life is lived through a journal, not through words.

Conversing with words is becoming obsolete. Eventually, this art of talking will be reduced to a wave instead of a hello and another wave for good-bye.  Even sales clerks have found out that saying thank you to a customer is ignored because the said customer is on the cell phone. This means that such words as thank you and have a good day" will be obsolete in a matter of time.

We need  to bring back conversation skills and  not  depend  on the Internet and cell  phone for expressing our thoughts and feelings.

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