Shouting Up the Stairs

"There are people who never take the time to engage with other human beings to have a meaningful dialog about things... If you have no productive, active, engaging conversations with other people, something is severely missing from your life." -the Partially Examined Life


The Partially Examined life is the title of a podcast that I have enjoyed for about four months now. I use it as a mind-expanding device when my whole family is entrapped in the world of computer screens and no one "feels up to discussion." Anyways, the quote posted above sparked a long train of thought for me. 
     My first thought was that we always tend to notice people who don't engage in said meaningful conversations. These tend to be the same people who are glued to their phone and computer screens. Although these groups are not mutually inclusive, people who are glued to their screens typically fail in certain social areas. Real social life is more fulfilling and engaging than social media. Productive conversations can happen via social media, but ideas are more difficult to convey online. Online/texting conversations are a lot like shouting from downstairs to upstairs. You stand at the bottom of the stairs and (not being able to see the other person nor being quite sure of their location) holler your words up at them. They might hear, they might not. Words will be confused, and intentions might be misconstrued. 
id est:
Person A: "Come downstairs, let's go!"
Person B: "Bum some flares? Legos?"
Person A: "Plumb gum? Dingo?"
Et cetera, et cetera.

So, why rely on technology when it is only comparable to an unfulfilling conversation? The answer can be found by looking to my wonderful Dad, and my extroverted friend. We'll call her giggles, for all intents and purposes. She had a question for Dad, something about logistics, so she called him. After dad answered the question, giggles started making small talk. My dad got annoyed. Dad asked giggles if he had answered her question. Giggles said yes, and the conversation ended. I was annoyed at dad's bluntness with my friend- but I shouldn't have been. You see, Dad only uses phones for what is necessary. It might have something to do with his failing hearing (he spends most of the conversation saying, "what?" And "slow down and speak up!"), but we can still learn a valuable lesson from his evasion of phones. So many times I've seen him on the phone with a talkative person, holding the phone just above his ear, rolling his eyes, waiting for them to quit talking. I don't quite think that rudeness should be resorted to when trying to end a conversation, but when someone is trying to communicate deep feelings over a text/Facebook message/email, reconsider and perhaps either call them over the phone, or hold the conversation until you can meet face to face. In my opinion, communicating through the Internet should be reserved for logistics and necessary conversations.