Modern technology threatens the ability to communicate

SMS, chat, blog . tend to be the main communication tool in a large part of young people in the US. Due to less and less talk, their ability to communicate by words is reduced, even causing misunderstandings and troubles from those around them.

In short, young Americans increasingly use 'finger language' more than 'tongue language' because they press, type the mobile phone keys and computers like computers while less expressive verbal thought.

Message to forget to say

With Alexandra Smith, 18, the Motorola Razr mobile phone is an unseen object because she always has a message. On average, every month Alexandra texted more than 1,000 SMS messages, which averaged more than 30 messages per day. To be more precise, she did not send messages as usual, but rather chat online. She said 'SMS' to her parents that she begged Alexandra to take the phone to her mouth to talk when contacting them instead of just sending SMS.

The case of Alexandra is not unique among young Americans today. There are children who send 20-30 messages every day. Erica Beal is also an example of digital addiction: From the age of 12, a mobile phone headset is always attached to her. At 15, she switched to SMS and aged 17, then switched to MySpace blog service. At the age of 18, Erica regularly visits Facebook blogs and sends about 10-15 messages a day.

Most students have a mobile phone but they still prefer to use SMS to exchange for regular calls. The tendency to use text messages instead of the words of young people is also fueled by cell phone companies by launching phones with large, easy-to-use keyboards and can send longer messages.

The digital language among young people also extends to social networking communities like MySpace and Facebook, and blogging websites. All ideas are shared, exchanged, debated online instead of words.

USA Today reports wryly that 'their mouths are wide open but laptops and cell phones are also expanding and the idea comes from there. Even the stars who are young fans have to learn how to communicate via thumb language. Teen actress Lindsay Lohan said she had to answer thousands of SMS messages sent by fans.

Mr. Brett Dicker confessed that since his son started high school, the father and son only talked about 10 times a year. Instead, he just likes . chatting with his parents via instant messaging (IM).

Risk of losing the ability to communicate by words

'Talking with fingers' is so severe that there are warning books and instructions on how to communicate verbally, such as 'Communicating at work: How to tell others to listen to you' by Sonya Hamlin. Sonya said she decided to write this book after going to teach at a "very bright" high school in California, USA. She was surprised because many students responded to the pointless words, meaningless, no information at all. Learn more, she found that they did not have good listening skills because they only used to read messages on cell phones or computers but did not talk directly to each other.

The 2005 survey by Achieve non-profit organization showed that 34% of employers were not satisfied with the verbal communication skills of the baccalaureate graduates. And up to 45% of the graduates of the Baccalaureate or university admits they are not confident with their public speaking ability.

Meanwhile, according to a survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project, the trend of non-verbal communication is growing worryingly. Among students who have cell phones and go to the Internet every day, 53% often communicate with friends via SMS and 61% via IM messages.

This trend is bringing huge profits for mobile phone service providers. In 2004, 22% of US mobile phone users used SMS messages. By 2005, this rate had increased to 36% with a total of 500 billion messages sent online. It is expected that by 2010, this number will reach 2,300 billion.

However, some other sociologists say that there is nothing to worry about. At some point, such as when you love each other, young people will come back to using traditional verbal communication methods, everything is back in because no one can shut up their whole life.

WALL NGHI