Talking, that gift of oral communication, is having a crisis. People don’t seem to do much face-to-face chatting anymore. Texting, email and phone chat have taken over that activity.
I have another problem with talking which evolves around being alone in a crowded room. The nearest desks to my mine at the office are yards away, and then all I usually hear are conversations associated with the job.
Working in a call center makes it tough to get any social interaction. It’s also the reason for the high obesity rate in the place (one can eat and talk, but not talk socially and conduct business too). Cell phone use is banned everywhere except the cafeteria: they even had to install a sign in the restroom to ban phones in there. I don’t know about some folks, but I wouldn’t want to know, or even get an inkling, that the person on the other end of my phone conversation was sitting on the loo. I have heard some rumors that ancient Romans did not object to talking while emptying their wastes, but nobody is able to confirm or deny that at this stage in history, and I’d like to think that bathrooms in Roman days were much like Roman baths: comfortable, congenial places that did not offend the average citizen. If I were an average Roman citizen, just the sounds of relief would offend me.
Anyway, Discover television personality Mike Rowe is featured in a Ford commercial in which two BFFs (best friends forever) text each other with joy at learning of their discount on a year-end clearance vehicle. Not a word uttered in the six inches between their stick-like bodies. I like Mike Rowe, but this particular ad disturbs me.
I’d like to know how much of the texting the average American does is actually important, as in involving a family emergency, a traffic problem or a need to stop at a market or pharmacy before going home. When it reaches a point at which state and local authorities have to remind drivers not to text or use the cell phone while driving, haven’t we gotten the message that we are losing touch with reality? I think we’re forgetting how to talk, and behind that will come forgetting how to read. That would be a tragedy.
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