Greyson Martinez

Skills are adaptive behaviors that allow people to deal with the demands and/or challenges of life. Among said skills are communication, coping, and decision making. All of which fall under the category of communication.

Being able to communicate is a fundamental skill. Teenagers after the pandemic found it difficult to express themselves verbally. They were all stuck behind a screen, said screen allowed people to type and edit their words, freeing them from having to formulate thoughts quickly and accurately. It got to the point where it affected the connection between family, friends, or other authority figures. Lack of proper communication affected the emotional wellbeing of relationships and now limits the development, connection, and understanding of them. Others work and attend school online, however it has affected their ability to listen to others. 

Listening is also important and is a part of communication. As feedback, building trust, resolving conflict, respect, learning, and support help us drastically during life. We all need feedback on things, anything really. Opinions are what shape us as an individual and help us learn. Everyone is entitled to their opinions though it can also cause conflicts. If we don’t know how to communicate during conflict or speak up about emotions, it could get worse and will never be resolved. Resolving it also helps build trust with one another. 

We also as humans need help with other things, people need help with understanding situations or tasks. As humans we are mentally built to learn and adapt; not to understand what something is immediately at birth. Talking to others helps learn and understand tasks better than just hearing someone over without questioning it. 

Tone is another important aspect in communication as well. Because of a screen and typing, we now cannot convey emotions properly like how we did through a screen. People now have a hard time trying to compare respectful over disrespectful, rude tone over nice tone, and being proper or improper. It can impacted relationships and is a major importance when talking verbally.

During the pandemic I was also impacted to the point where I couldn’t communicate with others properly and my attention span was, and still is, all over the place because of a screen. I cannot myself understand some tones and can’t figure out if people are being nice or rude. I have a vocal issue with that, I myself have a rude tone and sometimes don’t realize it because I think it’s me talking normally.

Overall, we as people need to learn to communicate with others and speak up, I also understand this can be difficult for others. But we all need to learn some day and it should be now rather than never. It’s crucial to life as we all can’t read each other’s minds and we shouldn’t just have to deal with it.