TRAVIS LEFEVRE
Managing Editor
I guess you could say that I have something of an obsession with video games. Ever since I sneaked behind my mom’s back and played “Halo 3” on my brother’s Xbox 360, I was hooked.
I finally got around to owning my own Xbox 360, a special edition made for “Halo: Reach.” Back when I was still an awkwardly developing teen, online gaming helped me make lifelong friendships. One friendship in particular has lasted for a solid eight years.
We’ve moved our friendship to the PlayStation 4 and eventually to social media, but were it not for our shenanigans on “Halo: Reach,” from trying to form an “elite” combat unit to trolling people in creative mode, I would not have a the close friendship that I have with someone from the other side of the country.
It says a lot about us as a species that we can form such close bonds with people we’ve never physically met. Especially in this age of technology and information, we are always meeting and connecting with new people. Older generations have said that people, my generation specifically, have lost the ability to communicate because we’re “always in our phones.” I disagree with that sentiment.
I recall seeing a photo from back in the day before cell phones. It was a crowd of people on a train, with everyone doing their own thing. Based on the context of the photo it looked like nobody was having communication with anybody else, but instead virtually everyone was reading from a newspaper or minding their own business.
So, respectfully of course, I find the sentiment that millenials and other young people are bad communicators to be nonsense. The way I see it, our communication skills have evolved with time.
We are an adaptive species who have adapted to the technology in front of us. I can hold a conversation with the random stranger in front of me, but I’d honestly rather text or call someone I know and am comfortable talking to. No offense to you John Joe, I just don’t know you, and quite frankly, in the brief two minutes we are uncomfortable sitting next to each other, we won’t become best friends. However, if you want to open up a conversation, by all means, I’m all ears.