Verbal Communication is becoming extinct

Those of you with teenagers know this already, but it would appear that verbal communications among many of us is becoming extinct. It would appear that we have replaced speaking with one another with Instant messaging and texting.

The other day my daughter forgot her lunch for school. This is not usually a big deal but she is a swimmer and works out 5 hours a day on some days. To say that she eats a lot is an understatement. For her to go without her lunch is admitting you would like to be replacing wallboard and desk tops in the school after she is through with them. So to make the situation better she texted me asking me to return to the pool at 6AM and bring her lunch to her. Mind you I was just there to drop her off at 5:45AM. Being a good father I did as requested and she thanked me via another text message at 7:30AM when she got out of the pool to go to class. In the time it took her to send the text message she could have called me and asked me herself verbally.

Insult to injury is when a co-worker emails or IMs you from across the isle. This has happened to me before as well. One guy was less than 20 feet from me and IM'd me to ask a question. Now I do not mind it when someone likes to use technology because it is fun but this is a bit out of hand. He claimed he did not realize I was in the office but I have a direct line of sight to his chair. The point is he did not look, or he would rather not speak to anyone.

I think there should be rules on the use of IM within an office. If you can reach the person within the same amount of walking you use to get to the coffee pot then you should walk over to them and ask in person. If what you want to discuss is not worth walking that far then it must not be that important anyway. If you are using email as a legal tool to document your discussion with someone then you need to seek out legal counsel and work out your issues with that person one on one. I can understand using IM to see if someone is open to a discussion at that point in time but lets use all of the communications skills we have developed, otherwise we will be back to writing on the cave walls.