Limit chatting….Start talking

 It was a time long back when people didn’t have cell phones. The way of communicating was direct or face-to-face talk or using the land-line telephone with BSNL connection. Talking over the telephone was expensive and so the talktime was limited. If it was a distance call, then one had to go to the nearby PCO booth for a short chat. The most easy and cheap way of conversation in those days was the traditional group talk (‘adda’). Adda was very popular in those days and people would be seen making groups to discuss on various issues. In those days, group conversation or ‘adda’ had a different taste. There were discussions about studies, sports, films, politics etc. These discussions had many advantages like it enhances one’s knowledge regarding an issue and also improves their speaking ability and communication skills.

Time changed fast when there was advent of mobile phone, which of course was more costly than land phones and was not owned by everyone. However, with the great technological advancements over the last ten years, people have had the option to purchase a “smartphone” that could access almost anything a computer could, while still functioning as a cell phone.

With the advancement of Smartphone, different messaging facilities in the form of apps became easily available. Suddenly communication became so fast, convenient and cheap. Messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat etc. had occupied our smartphone memory as well as our memory. These facilities when used for proper reasons have turned into very useful tool for development of human lives and business. These services make daily communications between family members, friends, and business partners easier, more accessible, and independent of circumstances, such as distance. Communities existing on such platforms unite people sharing similar interests or concerns, and allow the representatives of various cultural backgrounds to reach each other with no constraints. Helping strangers meet and enabling initial communication between them—this is what social networks are definitely good for.

However, in recent times, it has been seen that these facilities have also created negative effects in our lives and is also responsible in causing social disharmony.

One of the biggest short coming that the messaging apps have caused in our lives is that it has limited our verbal communication and increased text communication. Approximately 93 percent of communication today is already nonverbal, and thus requires an additional means of helping people understand each other (such as smileys or emojis), since text does not convey the total palette of intonations or facial expressions. The old way of ‘adda’ got transformed into group chats. One-to-one communication has become very limited. People have become isolated even when staying in group. Studies show that the alarming phenomenon connected to the extensive use of messaging services is the decrease in quality of interpersonal communication. One of the big problems in modern interpersonal communication is the lack of interest people have for face-to-face communication.

Few effects of constant chatting using messaging apps are

1.     Solitude life

2.     Lack of personal feelings

3.     Wastage of good amount of time

4.     Inability to understand facial expression

5.     Habituated of sharing anything and everything

6.     Lack of expression

7.     Lack of proper use of language (in verbal or written form)

8.     Lack of interpersonal skill

9.     Creating social and mental discord of an individual

Group texting or group chat has led us to have fewer interactions with the people that they associate with. People have a tendency to want to interact with people online rather than in person because it has made the process simpler. Although it may be viewed as a positive change, this has caused people to become more antisocial than ever before, as counterintuitive as that may sound. Nowadays, it is a common sight where a group of people (specially young people) meeting at a place are busy chatting in their smartphones, without physically talking to the members of the group. Even when important discussions and meetings are now happening over group chats, people are not able to present their opinion freely because of the phobia that each and every word will be recorded and may be used against him/her later on. People do not see each other face and therefore are not able to understand each other emotions through facial expression.

Another impairment of communication skills caused by the extensive use of social media chatting is the impoverishment of language. Using messengers, people often use shorthand and shortened versions of words in order to type and deliver their messages as quickly as possible. This has limited the use of English vocabulary and decreased the ability of people habit to speak or write sentences correctly. Short hand texting has become the new way of writing. As for example, instead of ‘your’ it has become ‘ur’, year has become yr, and emotions and activities have been replaced by smily’s and stickers.

With the wide spread use of writing short messages in chats, writing letters or applications have become very limited. As a result, it is seen that many people do not know how to write a letter or an application adhering to the rules of writing letter/ application. This seriously limits one’s ability while writing a cover letter or cover email for job applications, increasing the chances of getting eliminated in job interview process.

IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION FOR GETTING PLACEMENTS

The lack of social skills on our young generation has impacted their performances in securing jobs and placements. Nowadays, companies have limited their recruitment numbers and have introduced several rounds of tests, which are basically elimination rounds. Companies, in recent years have laid more stress on recruitment based on certain skills like technical knowledge and communication skills. Group discussion, spoken English test, grammar and vocabulary test, telephonic interview, interview using video conferencing, written skills like writing test emails and even live demonstration of handling customer queries are some of the elimination rounds that companies use in their recruitment process.

Individuals who are always in deep virtual conversations may find it difficult to cross the various rounds of eliminations as the way of public speaking or expressing one’s ideas in verbal communication is less practiced. Also, indigence in writing in chatting apps will limit his/ her ability to write letters/ emails which are also part of elimination tests.

WHAT CAN BE DONE

LIMIT THE USE

The most convenient way of coming out of these dilemmas is to reduce the use of messaging apps and try to open up face-to-face conversation with friends and family members. The traditional way of interaction by ‘adda’ should be encouraged by parents and teachers. Parents should also monitor the use of smart phones by their children and ask them to interact with their peers through social visits. Young adults should try practicing the non use of their mobile phones for chatting and group messaging for sometime daily. During that time they should open up conversations and discuss on various topics of their interest.

READ AND CONVERSE MORE FACE-TO-FACE

Knowledge is the most important treasure of human lives and knowledge is enhanced by reading. The traditional way of reading books have now reduced to reading contents of websites and e-books. However, these are also good practices and should be encouraged. In addition to reading and gaining knowledge, the knowledge should be discussed and shared amongst friends and relatives. One-to-one interaction and group discussions helps in sharing knowledge and increase confidence in public speaking. Instead of discussing everything over group messages, which actually creates personal disharmony, children and adults should put efforts in writing blogs and articles and publish them in online and print magazines and newspapers. This practice shall enhance their writing ability by helping them frame sentence and paragraph.

GO ONLINE AND OFFLINE

Being adept in online communications and offline interactions is important for a variety of reasons, be it business, education or social purposes. However, competency in both does not come easily to everyone. Bridging the gap between offline relationships and online connections can help to maintain valuable relations and increase skill development. The intersection of social media and real-life communication form two halves that can bring value and meaning to our daily interactions. They are no longer separate realms, but increasingly intertwined worlds that are now both equally indispensable platforms for communication. Making the most of both of these will help to get the best chance of success.

In conclusion it can be said that there are good ways and bad ways of using the messaging apps. While these apps is used for connecting between friends, families and different communities and helps to bring positive social change, limitless use of these apps may lessen one’s ability to communicate properly in verbal and non-verbal communication. Hence, one should use his/ her own judgment in making the optimal use of these apps.