What is it with people and eye contact? I feel as if in the past 10 years everyone has forgotten how to actually talk to one another, and I don't mean over the phone. No, I mean holding the door for a person and telling them to have a good day, or walking past someone and just saying hello. These are supposed to be basic human mannerisms but have developed into becoming very rare interactions.
With technology continuing to increase, I understand that it makes it much harder for us to actually get that personal interaction with someone. Today, people are born into an era that revolves and depends around technology. Not trying to put down technology or anything because it definitely has its list of pros, but nowadays, people are forgetting or are not being taught properly on how to communicate with a person face to face.
Take a look around you right now, I bet if you are somewhere public than almost half of those people have their face in their phones. It honestly, doesn't matter if you are somewhere public or not, our phones do not leave our side and when they do, well, the whole world might as well end.
Let's take a trip back in time to when our parents were in their teenage to young adult years. If they wanted to hang out with a friend, they had to either talk to them during school hours or go to their house and ask themselves. They didn't have an iPhone to face time someone or text to see what they were doing. They didn't have a phone period. Sounds like torture, right? They didn't know any better than to show up at someone's house and talk to them in person because that's all you could do.
The pros of growing up nondependent on technology show through our parents and grandparents. They would rather speak to you in person rather than over the phone because they want to actually see your face. Most of our grandparents do not even have a cell phone because they didn't grow up relying on one. We think it's funny trying to teach them and also some of our parents how to use an iPhone because we are the first generation with this kind of technology.
I am grateful to grow up in a generation with this kind of technology available for us to use, but at the same time, I sometimes wish I could see what it was like when cell phones didn't even exist. I want to be able to go up to someone and tell them to have a good day without it being awkward. I want someone to actually hold eye contact when they are talking to me instead of always looking down at their phone.
It's a great new generation we are growing up and living in, but making the effort to have that personal interaction with someone you either do or don't know is important for all our futures.
