By Maccollins
Conversation involve much more than simply words – cues such as voice tone and body language also convey information such as enthusiasm, sadness, emotion and truthfulness and these cues are what makes for good conversations.
Face to face conversation is becoming more of a luxury than the norm and I often wonder if 10 years from now we would be conversing at all, yet it is believed that conversation is critical to our well-being and especially important for children development.
What makes a good conversations has changed little over the years: “Speak clearly; speak easily but not too much, especially when others want their turn; do not interrupt; be courteous; deal seriously with serious matters and gracefully with lighter ones; never criticize people behind their backs; stick to subjects of general interest; do not go on and on about yourself; and, above all, never lose your temper.”
Sadly all that is changing in the face of technology, people don’t need to speak to one another, they can text it, tweet it, post it, e-mail it or Facebook it. Who needs vocal cords when you have technology? Emotions are now being conveyed with an array of smiley albeit poorly. The few that makes the attempt can barely keep from looking at their phones every now and then giving the impression of being more interested in their phones than the company.
Dates these days are becoming more of a formality as those critical things that require face to face conversations are discussed in the bland/emotionless world of social media denying people the pleasure of truly enjoying the emotions that comes with it. People already know almost everything about a person before they actually meet and talk for the first time.
I miss conversations, I have always enjoyed talking to people and learning their stories. When you speak to a person, face-to-face, you gain added knowledge about the story and about the people themselves; you hear the emotions involved with the story that technology hasn’t been able to capture.
Gone are the days when you’ll have to find witty ways to keep conversation going all through a date. Maybe I’m Sounding this way because not too long ago (early/mid 2000s), we had the pleasure of enjoying good conversations without the extra encumbrance of social media and I'm nostalgic.
When was the last time you had a conversation? And I mean an actual face to face conversation, one where you learned more than just the surface value of a person, one that lasted more than a few minutes, one that would be remembered easily, one that doesn't involve checking your phone every now and then, one without the luxury of re-reading every last bit or one that does not involve our various tech gadget.
Have a conversation. Do that once a week, Learn about people, Talk to people, Practice the art of conversation. Conversation is a dying art and it makes me sad.
Photo credit : Instagram
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