The lost art of conversation.

There has never been a time in history where humans were more connected, why is it that everyone I talk to seems lonely, disconnected, and irrelevant? Traditional face-to-face communication once a valued ancient form of expression, is on life support. Will the art of conversation stand the test of time?

I spent my most of senior year at university speaking in front of large groups of students and professors, only for that training to rarely be used in real life. The reality of life in this modern high-speed, wiz-bang world is this; we have access to large volumes of information at the speed of light, but no one is teaching us HOW to use it, perhaps the same is true with social media, firearms, doughnuts and illicit drugs.

We own an old sign that reads, "save fuel, PHONE," pretty smart tactic during the beginning of the telephone era, signaling an alternative to drive over to speak to someone, which has been the standard in the first half of my life, now Its people communicating AT you instead of with you. In our current evolution cycle with telepathy, having a person unload an emotional missle is just brutal.

BIG DIFFERENCE, being IN a conversation, which takes skill, you have to pause, you have to listen, you need to reciprocate at the appropriate times...and in tiny microscopic bits of data that for some reason (spending long hours researching and rabbit holing) b vb is not coming fast enough, because in the age of information, our brains are getting used to massive data transfers.

We can answer most questions in a matter of minutes(google,Q) and it takes that long to start small talk. Especially hard for men is the notion that we should be good listeners, as we are more oriented to solve problems rather than listen to how said problem is making everyone 'feel.' I can solve the problem so you do not have to feel bad, sorry honey back in minute. Problem solved, and to my surprise I am in bigger trouble now than before when the problem was unsolved, because I did not take the time to listen.

Listening is overrated and easily feinted, so whats the problem now???Mars and Venus I suppose. Why I thought it was smart to live with aliens from Venus is beyond me, even if everyone else is doing it - which traditionally means safe practice - the reality is marriage is anything but easy and safe, and my experience has been it just complicates life to the Nth degree, as invariably you will find yourself short of others expectations that have mysteriously changed since marriage replaced the old description of partnership. However, no other endeavor has been its equal for understanding what it means to love unconditionally and the enlightenment of seeing ourselves in others, which is the basis for a brighter future for all of us.

Before the information age, many questions went unanswered, or was the domain of Universities, in which young men and women attend so they could be professionals and paid to explore, work and teach others wanting to know the same. Now, you can better educate yourself by using the tools of the internet; if you want to learn something, go to youtube not university. But many kids are still going to expensive schools with NO idea what it is they want to do, because they believe its a good idea until they realize that the debt is real.

None of the people I know use video phone technology in non - business environments. Only a handful of people I know even used the facetalk features except on accident. A butt video call is, as you would imagine, is more awkward than your standard butt dial.

I thought a smart phone was suppose to be smart so I would not have be, my ass!