Social media

Social media, hand held devices and the availability of wifi seem to be the death of conversation and socialistion face to face  here in Vietnam. I'm not sure if this is a happening thing around the world, however I'm sure the Vietnamese are world leaders. Frequently when you are out having a meal or coffee in one of the zillions of coffee shops through out the city you will see a gathering of adults, all ages and genders, sitting around using their technology. No one speaks, they just use the devices. Why bother meeting up? No one is sharing apps or expertise, everyone is silent and screen focused.
Last Sunday our Kindle / e-reader group met for a brunch in a really nice hotel. The  food is renown with a huge variation of dishes, and the service excellent. This Asian couple, they could well be Korean, spent their time on their devices.  He on the iPad and she on an iPhone and they hardly passed a word. One would be forgiven for asking why they didn't sit at home to eat and order in?
The Saturday before a group of us went out for coffee. Behind us a toddler sat in his high chair at the table with Mum and Dad. Mum propped the iPad up infront of the toddler and he spent the whole time watching the screen while Mum and Dad spent their time on their devices.  No conversation at all.

I've just finished having a conversation with a colleague about the number of words a child needs to hear to have good language and a high IQ when they enter school. The paragraph below was taken from a blog. This blog, basically summerises what my friend was saying. Devices are stiffing socialisation, language and academic ability.

Children whose families were on welfare heard about 600 words per hour. Working-class children heard 1,200 words per hour, and children from professional families heard 2,100 words. By age 3, a poor child would have heard 30 million fewer words in his home environment than a child from a professional family. And the disparity mattered: the greater the number of words children heard from their parents or caregivers before they were 3, the higher their IQ and the better they did in school. TV talk not only didn’t help, it was detrimental.