A Problem with an Easy Solution

 

I recently read a report about a growing problem in America. The study revealed that the majority of younger Americans feel ‘out of touch’ with others, the largest percentage being young men whose most frequent concern was that ‘no one really knew them.’

I understand how this is possible, and all that was required was to observe people in public areas. Personal interaction is disappearing, and along with it honest discussion and the expression of diversity in the form of new and different ideas.

The truth is, I know what caused this problem and how it can be cured.

In the late 1970’s, my wife and I received our first cellular phones m AT&T. We didn’t ask for them. We had 25 total minutes per month, free of charge. They were bulky, about the size of thermos of coffee. We decided to use them only in an emergency. We had two over the first month.

We were born in 1946 and 1950 and remember the annoyance of waiting for phone calls from doctors, auto mechanics, and others. We had to remain home where our phone was located. I knew that this invention would not be a luxury, but a necessity.

Since those days, I have a love-hate relationship with my cell phone. When we call someone, we are able to reach them, not a phone sitting on a table or hanging on a wall. However, they have become revolting and annoying in the 21^st century. They are also a danger to the future of mankind.

Men and women place a greater importance on their phones than what the people involved in their lives have to say standing in the same room. I see tables in pizza joints occupied by six teenagers. None of them are talking to each other, they are on their phones talking or texting to someone else.

The art of conversation began to disappear in the 1990’s. Today, few Americans can engage in intelligent and interesting conversation with another person. Social interaction is in steep decline.

The advent of Facebook, Twitter, and other “social networks” greatly exacerbated the problem. The internet contains less than 10 percent of the truth: of facts. Today, communication with others is a lost art, and nothing confirms my allegation more perfectly than the lack of honest deliberation and compromise in Washington.

The intelligent quotient of the average American has undoubtedly been reduced by 5-10 points or more. Everything which happens of importance in the lives of younger Americans occurs online. This is THE problem, and ending this pattern is the solution.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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