I was eating breakfast today, alone, watching other people (yes, watching, but not like a creepy watching, but more like a natural observation experiment, almost) when I started wondering whether or not other people watch people too. I looked around, and people who were together were obviously talking to one another, but everyone I saw alone was either toying with a cell phone, typing on a laptop, or vigorously engaged in their food.
I suppose it’s not true for absolutely everyone (as most ideas and theories are wont to have exceptions), but it’s an interesting idea nonetheless.
People spend so much time on the internet or texting on phones that what if people are losing certain communication skills? Think about it. On the internet, you don’t have body language to read. You don’t have tones of voice to analyze. You don’t have a face expression to give you the subtleties of how someone is -really feeling-. All you have are the characters that are typed in front of you.
In fact, you can hardly analyze the characters written in front of you. Sometimes people will not respond to messages immediately, Why? There could be multiple reasons. It could be that they’re running off to the bathroom; that they’re considering what you’re saying; that they’ve run away from their computer to eat lunch; that they honestly do not want to talk to you anymore. The fact is, there is too much uncertainty behind the computer screen for you to understand what someone is -really- saying, which is why sarcasm is sometimes rather difficult to detect over the internet.
“So what does this entail?” I asked myself. I was able to draw a few conclusions that may or may not be accurate, but, again, interesting to think about nonetheless.
One, people are becoming worse at interpreting face expressions. Body language seems fairly easy to read, and if you want to learn more about it, there are numerous books on just that subject. Tone of voice is also fairly easy to read, especially because movies and radio incorporate tone of voice so frequently. Face expressions, however, have a certain subtlety to them. They can’t be caught over the radio, or through pictures usually. Even movie actors fail to portray them accurately. How? A fake smile and a real smile have certain subtleties to them (and if you think you can spot them accurately, I encourage you to try this test and see for yourself before reading on). I will tell you the difference later.
Two, people are becoming better at reading words. Indeed, words are a fairly accurate indicator to detecting lies (for example, people who lie tend to remember exact dates than people who don’t, or people who are telling the truth tend to be able to relay their emotions about an event better, at least according to Richard Wiseman, Ph. D. in psychology (of course, even with credentials you should go out and test these ideas for yourself)). So it could be that people are better in spotting lies in words.
Three, people are becoming worse at public speaking, or interfacing with individuals face-to-face. This is definitely not true for all cases, but let me at least get my idea across. In a chatroom or a forum, people have as long as they want to respond to a message. This is one of the biggest differences between chatrooms and live conversations. Now, if people fall into the routine of being able to take their time responding to messages, they won’t be as quick to thinking on their feet. The people aren’t less intelligent, per se, they just might be having difficulty communicating as fast as live communication demands. Perhaps this is why news outlets are claiming that the current generation of teenagers is getting dumber and dumber. They’re not less intelligent, they’re just more used to speaking through chatrooms than speaking live.
All of these are to be taken with a grain of salt, but I thought I’d share my ideas here nonetheless.
Oh, by the way, look at the eyes for the smile. 
EDIT: Oh, before anyone here asks, no I don’t have any evidence behind this. It’s all speculation. Almost like a scientist proposing a hypothesis. I guess if I wanted to ask something, I’d ask, “Does this make sense, and do you see this happening, or is this outright wrong?”
