Communication Skills Have Never Been More Important
As the age of the internet begins to mature, it is becoming ever more apparent that communication skills are one of the most important skills a person can acquire. People are complaining about how the income gap is widening between the “haves” and the ”have nots”. If you look more closely at it, I think you will find that these lines also split people based on their communication skills.
It could be a reflection of the level of education a person achieves as well. Obviously as a person’s education level increases, their communication skills also tend to increase along with it. The two items are somewhat correlated even though they are different.
The thing that brought this to my attention was the fact that you see search engine results improving based on quality. For Google at least, it is becoming apparent that they are actually figuring out ways of using filters to determine some level of quality about any given website. Although they obviously aren’t 100% accurate, they are certainly much better than they used to be.
This is a trend that is bound to continue. Not only will you see it continue online, but you will also see it happen in many other areas in life. The salesman with the best communication skills will sell more product than his counterparts. The politician with the best communication skills will quickly rise to power as is evident with president Obama. The business man with the best communication skills will climb the corporate ladder much faster than others.
Doesn’t this just make perfect sense?
Shouldn’t we then encourage our children as much as possible to better their communication skills on every level? Shouldn’t we discourage them from writing to each other using abbreviations for words instead of writing complete sentences with proper grammar? Shouldn’t we try to make ourselves good examples for the children around us to learn these habits? Shouldn’t we demand that our schools deny diplomas to students who cannot write in complete sentences using reasonable grammar?
Parents and educators alike are accepting sub-par performance from children and young adults when it comes to communication skills. Students, regardless of age, should be expected to speak English and write English very well. Neglecting this basic and fundamental prerequisite to a better life is truly a disservice to that child. We should not let them down.
