The art of communication- a musing

Something came up recently that has stuck in my mind. In this day and age, we live in a world of social media, where 140 characters or less you can tell all your friends how you are or what you're doing. Before it was msn/yahoo/aol/email and before that hand written letters, etc. The point is that we're living in a world where text messages and social media are a means to have communication at your fingertips. Literally and figuratively. It's everywhere and in one form or another, everyone is doing it.

But what are we teaching future generations? That the written word is pointless? There's already been articles about assignments being reduced to nonstandard abbreviations and symbols. Yes, there are good things that come with texting or social media-- take the earthquake in Haiti and later in Chile; with just a press of a code and you could donate straight to their funds. The moment that earthquake hit, everybody knew about it and could prepare. Yes, there are good points but how will the next generation be affected?

Recently it came up that a bunch of us were talking about Twitter and how we've become so use to writing in 140 characters or less and that anything longer than a paragraph... the reader's eyes begin to glaze over. This was an interesting and it stayed with me. Kids are already becoming more computer savvy at an earlier age. Just how will all this affect future generations?