The world has changed in many different ways over the years, both for the positive and negative. One change that stands out to me in a negative way is the lack of communication skills with the younger generation. Although I am a fan of texting due to its convenience, I most certainly still continue to express myself through personal interaction. For kids in our new generation, that is not the case.

Did you know that about 2.5 billion text messages are sent out each day, and that’s only for the US! I am concerned with how the social

skills of our younger generation will be affected by not only communicating through texting but also the online world. Kids are not learning how to talk with people directly as texting and messaging allows you to avoid face-to-face interaction. Almost every time I go out somewhere a teenager might be working, the manners and social capabilities are absent. It makes me wonder if the parents are not paying attention to their children’s social behaviors.

I remember when I was young, my mother would always teach me how to be polite, interact and show courtesy, which falls under the umbrella of social skills. I still to this day have those same manners stuck in my head and have been using them for years. It is so important to drill this into your children at an early age, and now with texting, and social networking making its way to younger children each and every year its becoming imperative. The future for this generation will be completely different in the way we interact and communicate. It makes me sad to see the affects something as simple as texting has taken on vitally important skills.

For the first time we are now seeing mobile apps become the most popular form of browsing! According to a study by Flurry, on average 9% more time is now spent using mobile apps than the Internet. This statistic had a drastic jump from last year causing a 91% change! The average user last year spent around 43 minutes a day on mobile apps, while spending 64 minutes using the Internet. Now mobile apps are being used over 81 minutes per day, while spending 74 minutes using the Internet.

With mobile apps only a few years old, they have surpassed the use of desktop Internet at an amazing rate! One of the main factors in this huge change is the popularity of smart phones and tablets. Their shipments exceed all desktop and laptop shipments! We can already see a shift in what the future holds for ordinary desktop and laptops, it’s all about the convenience of smart phones and tablets.

In the study, they also analyze what time is actually being spent on each day using the mobile apps. The pie chart illustration shows 47% of time is spent on gaming, 32% on social networking and the rest is made up of news, entertainment and anything else. I can’t believe 79% of time alone is spent gaming and networking, that’s a huge chunk! It’s obvious the app craze has taken the lead and the old ways of browsing are falling behind! It’s quite impressive how quickly this simple idea evolved into being the main form of connection to the World Wide Web.

We live in turbulent economic times! It’s a simple yet complex fact. With all the cautious financial forecasting reported by the economic gurus this does little to relieve the anxiety and frustration people feel about the lack of stability that change brings about!
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