Heads up. I am on vacation this week so no blog postings. Trying to practice what I preach about balance etc……but, check this out from the Wall Street Journal in case you need some thoughts provoked.

Why Gen-Y Johnny Can’t Read Nonverbal Cues
Wall Street Journal (08/28/09) Bauerlein, Mark P.

Tasked with chronicling communications differences among the different generations in the workplace and other social settings, Emory University English Professor Mark Bauerlein writes: “We live in a culture where young people — outfitted with iPhone and laptop and devoting hours every evening from age 10 onward to messaging of one kind and another — are ever less likely to develop the ‘silent fluency’ that comes from face-to-face interaction.” Bauerlein laments that too many of today’s cutting-edge communication tools involve the exchange of written words alone. While phones at least allow the transmission of tone of voice, pauses and so forth, this is not the case in text-dependent communications. Bauerlein states: “Users insert smiley-faces into emails, but they don’t see each others’ actual faces. They read comments on Facebook, but they don’t ‘read’ each others’ posture, hand gestures, eye movements, shifts in personal space and other nonverbal — and expressive — behaviors.” Some in the workplace are beginning to take steps to improve the situation. In Silicon Valley, for instance, several companies have implemented “topless” meetings in which laptops, iPhones and other similar tools are banned to combat the problem of “continuous partial attention.” With a device close by, attendees at work meetings have proven time and again they are unable to devote their full attention to who is speaking. Bauerlein remarks, “It’s too easy to check e-mail, stock quotes and Facebook. While a quick log-on may seem, to the user, a harmless break, others in the room receive it as a silent dismissal.” Consequently, such devices must now be checked at the door. Bauerlein is the author of “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”

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