Being a teenager, I am surrounded by social media platforms everywhere I go. I have witnessed how it can affect a person, in good and bad ways. Social media can be used to communicate with those who live far away, something that wasn’t possible in the past. However, with this gain, there are losses as well. Such as many millennials being afraid to speak on the phone rather than send text messages, or they struggle to have a conversation with someone in person due to not being able to hide their true feelings or expressions. Thus, concise communication on social media can be detrimental in the overall development of communication skills.  

In the past, you had to call your friends and family on the phone, or even go see them in person. This normal action has become something that is feared by millennials. Not only is it hard to carry out the conversation, but the conversation may not be an honest as it would be over text. For example, many relationships end nowadays over a text message because we find it easier to break hard news while hiding behind our phones. However, by doing this we lose the opportunity to move on with respect for each other. Neither person leaves the relationship feeling respected and cared for like it should be. Along with that, it may be easier for your boss to fire you through an email rather than calling you into his office and doing it in person. This technological interaction causes us to form opinions about these people that shouldn’t be formed. It is important for us to have the courage to talk through even the toughest of situations in person because there is nothing like human interaction. From the beginning people had to talk through things in person rather than hide behind our cell phones and now we are losing communication skills that are crucial to our development and survival. 
Our fear of having hard conversations in person comes from our want to hide our true feelings and expressions. Even though we think it might be easier to break up with someone over text, or fire someone through an email, in the end we are just trying to protect ourselves. We are afraid of how to deal with the reaction of the other person, and we are afraid to see how we will truly react to the news. For example, we may feel strong enough to break up with our significant other and doing it over text seems easiest because we know deep down that if we did it in person, we would be in a puddle of tears as well. Thus, social media is causing us to lose our emotions and feelings. They don’t get expressed the same physical way that they should be and always have been. We are afraid to admit how we feel so we hide behind our phones and other technology and let that do the work for us. However, little do we know that we are hurting the other person more by doing this. Both people could be upset together and work together, however, we are leaving all of the pain and hurt onto one person. In complete honesty, we are selfish by hiding behind our technology. And not to mention all of the bullying that comes from social media such as pretending to be someone we are not or posting anonymous comments about someone. We are cowardly and selfish because of our social media. 

Communication skills are being affected by millennials’ consistent use of social media. It is affecting our ability to speak honestly and feel and express our true feelings. It is sad that an invention that was supposed to bring us forward, is holding us back in much greater ways. Social media is a great tool for advertising and communicating with distant friends and family. However, we can’t let is break what truly makes us human, which is our ability to connect with other humans on a level much deeper than a Facebook comment. We are cowardly and selfish, and it is time for a change.