Many call this the age of communication, I don’t. We have Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, texting, Blogs (like this one), and many other ways to communicate.

You would assume with all these speedy ways to converse that we would be friendly, open, and comfortable with communication.

While on campus the other day I was asking random students questions for a Pioneer article. Some looked uncomfortable while many barely looked me in the eye before continuing whatever they were doing.

I notice this everywhere not just on campus, in a time when you can chat with some on the other side of the world, many of us can’t carry on a one minute conversation face to face.

We are so unused to audibly speaking with strangers that we blunder through any discussion while on Facebook we are the most verbose and friendly person.

One student shocked me by using my questions as a opening to a conversation, we had an engaging talk and I walked away feeling energized and uplifted.

Just from a few simple minutes of communication!

What would today be like if we all took a break from technological socializing and had plain and simple conversation with the people we meet throughout the day?

To have impressive muscles you must workout at the gym, to cook well you must make many dishes, to speak confidently in person you have to do just that open you mouth and speak.

So during this new semester, try to turn off your phone walk up to someone you don’t know, smile, and speak you will be surprised how much better your day will be.