Communication is worse now despite having more things than ever to communicate with. Period. End sentence. Really, though, I could leave it at that and you all would know what I mean. Yeah, maybe you are a good communicator and so this does not apply to you, but you still know what I’m talking about. We have instant connectivity at our fingertips. Texting. FB messaging. WhatsApp. GroupMe. Snapchat. Twitter. Slack. (Dare I say memes? LOL). And yet somehow, despite all of the many ways we can communicate, communication has gotten worse. How do we fix it? I’m not really sure. Should we fix it, or better yet, can it even be fixed? I don’t know. I’m not here to give you answers, but merely to make you think of the issue.

The biggest issue in my opinion (which, this is my blog, so of course this is my opinion) is that we beat around the bush too much or leave things unsaid. Why do we do that? Why is it so hard to say what we really mean? I much prefer someone to be brutally honest with me than to be vague or not say anything at all. Don’t worry if it is a truth you think I don’t want to hear. I guarantee you I want to hear it. If I know how someone really feels, then I can process and accept it, then move forward. Or, if it’s something I can fix, now I can go about fixing it. I can’t do any of that if I don’t know what that person’s really feeling. And I’m not talking strictly in terms of courting someone and whether they really like you or just want to be friends. I mean in regards to everything, I feel that people have a hard time really expressing what they think and how they feel, which is ironic with all of the different ways we now have to communicate with each other.

Perhaps the problem is that with all of those ways to communicate, we don’t actually have to see the person we are engaging with. One could argue that it would be easier to be truthful when you don’t have to see the other person and their reaction in person, but the same could be said about not being entirely truthful. Who knows?

As we all grow into our 20s (and almost 30s, ugh), we find it hard to maintain current and past friendships, and even harder to establish new friendships. Speaking for myself, I have at least found it to be this way, and communication is a big reason why. Everyone is always deep in their phones (probably talking to others) even though you are right there in front of them. It’s hard to connect that way. And I’ve never been really good at establishing a connection with someone via online. I’ve always trusted actions over words, so that makes it hard for a person like me to trust a relationship founded online. I like to know where exactly I stand with people, and I like to let them know where they stand with me. I feel I’m pretty honest about all of that because honesty is important to me and I hate sugar-coating things. I’ve been on the receiving end of lies and half-truths too often.

Now, am I saying I’ve never lied before? Of course not. We’ve all been untruthful before and will be again at some point. But it’s something I try to be cognizant of. There’s one thing you can count on, though, and that is the more serious the discussion at hand, the more honest I’m going to be.

Just don’t be that guy^ LOL. Until next time y’all, peace, love, and positivity!

 

The lyrics for this post’s title came from Childish Gambino’s Kids (Keep Up)