Losing Language Skills Could be Devastating for Society

If education is not treated as a priority and given the attention it needs there is a danger the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing will deteriorate. This will lead to a breakdown in society, as a decline in any form of communication would. If we fail to understand the characteristics of language and how to overcome language barriers our lives will become fraught with constant misunderstanding and insurmountable problems.

A limited vocabulary and lack of fluency will reduce conversation to the mundane which lead to unfulfilment and boredom.

Cultural differences aside, language is our primary form of communication. If we are unable to interpret what we are reading or hearing in our first language, we will misunderstand each other. The consequences of not recognising the characteristics of language and learning how to overcome language barriers, could be dire.

Apart from water, food and shelter, communication, health and education are vital to our basic existence.

Language Skills Loss Will be Catastrophic

If we lose our language skills, we will lose the ability to communicate with one another, heading to a breakdown in Society. Cultural differences aside, language is the main way we communicate. If we can’t interpret what we read or hear, we can’t understand each other. The consequences are dire.

What Does a Breakdown in Society Mean?

When we talk about societies collapsing, we tend to think more about unavoidable natural catastrophes than problems of our own making.

Societal collapse (also known as civilizational collapse) is the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of socioeconomic complexity, the downfall of government, and the rise of violence. Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, and depopulation. A collapsed society may revert to a more primitive state, be absorbed into a stronger society, or completely disappear.

Wikipedia

But the impact deteriorating language skills will have, could be far greater than we realise. Strangely, standards have been eroding year by year as technology has advanced at a rapid rate. Liken it to the way basic arithmetic came to be seen as less important as calculators replaced mental arithmetic.

When the calculator gives you an answer, it must be right even when it’s wrong. Man hasn’t yet produced a calculator that says, Sorry you entered the wrong figures. Try again.

If you have mental arithmetic skills you will know instinctively, when the check-out girl charges you too much, not because she is fleecing you, but because she trusts the machine, and can’t imagine her fingers failed her eyes.

Society and Modern Technology

The internet has developed to such a degree that physical reference libraries have passed their sell-by date and are becoming obsolete. Wherever you are in the world you have information on tap via AI driven search engines. With one of the greatest inventions imaginable, available to all, language skills should be improving, not declining.

We have mobile telephone contact from anywhere to anywhere. No more scrabbling around to find a public phone box in a thunderstorm, when your car has broken down.

Short of making you a cappuccino, your PC can take the drudgery out of the mundane, if you invest time and harness its power. You can use the time saved to advance your career, education, business and life, at a faster pace. Alternatively, as many do, you can use the time-saving to laze or extend your leisure activities. The choice is yours.

Positive and Negative Effects of Technology

I address the positive and negative effects of technology in detail In a post I wrote called 9 Reasons to worry about the dangers of Mobile Devices.

Do you remember when you got your first mobile phone. How excited you were, but how much time it took to set up and understand? And in those far-off days, it was just a PHONE.

As technology developed they got lighter and smaller. How brilliant it was, and how happy you were then. But, my my, how things changed, as the juggernaut of technology rolled on. It tramples us underfoot, leaving us confused in its wake, as it supplies us with never-ending products which enable us to learn and communicate, faster and better. A misconception if ever there was one.

Are the positive and negative effects of technology in balance? Are we using technology to our best advantage? Technology gives us a huge advantage over our predecessors, and we should embrace and use it wisely.

James King

It is debateable that we are.

Erosion of Privacy

Privacy is being, surely and not slowly, eroded.

You can’t go anywhere or do anything without your device – It feels like you are being stalked. Even though it’s twice the size of your old mobile phone, it is not big enough to live alone. Like your dog, it must accompany you everywhere and you must never turn it off or tie it to a lamp post outside the grocer’s shop. It makes weird noises all day long. And it takes you some time to realise that your pockets aren’t filled with parrots and cockerels.

But because you have followed your children’s advice to the letter, you are now at everyone’s beck and call 24/7. If you don’t respond within seconds to a message, it will be assumed that you have died. So you end up with constipation because you don’t want to be caught in the loo with your trousers down. Then you start to smell bad because you can’t afford the time to take a shower until three am. The time when everyone you don’t want to communicate with is asleep.

James King

Amusing or not, there is a serious message behind these words.

How does Media Influence our Perception of Reality?

Social Media Impact

Social Media has had a profound impact on our lives. But, look, are the real benefits obvious. I keep looking, because I really do want to find those elusive benefits.

Faceless Books and Tweets

I use Social Media to help promote my books and my blog, otherwise, I have no interest other than in the traffic they may deign to send me.

So, it is with envy I look on those amongst us who have a more peaceful life because they are not affected and can ignore Social Media. 

Communication and Levels of Language Proficiency

I am concerned about communication, as it relates to language skills, clarity of speech and writing. The huge amount of time people spend on Facebook should go some way to improving their ability to communicate, but I don’t see it.

By communicating, I don’t mean making a connection. I mean making the person at the other end, understand what you are saying. Sadly, in the blizzard of X (Twitter) speak, there appears to be no evidence to support that.

Misuse of Technology

I see the misuse of the brilliant and powerful technology we have at our disposal, leading to a more sedentary and isolated lifestyle for far too many young and not so young people.

Poor Language Skills and Information Overload Affect Communication

Mountains of unwanted and largely useless information, highlighted by poor language skills, is clogging up communication channels, leading to frustration and stress. Are we in danger of being spammed to death?

The workload needed to control the privacy invasion, plus the often uncontrollable malware infiltration is driving normally sane people doolally.

More Bloggers switch off comments from the blogs they follow, as email inboxes burst at the seams with abuse scattered among genuine interest.

Back in the day, it used to be exciting to hear the postman arrive, in the hope that there might be a letter from a loved one. Now I have to manage the electronic Postman so I can feel safe to turn on my PC. If I don’t I will have to don my mail sorting office hat for at least an hour or more.

What are the Dangers of Losing Language Skills?

Loss of language skills is a most serious issue and a real danger to society. But do most people realise the extent of the problem?

I like the dictionary definition of ‘language’, which I found whilst writing this post.

‘any set or system of such symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people, who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another.’

The reason I like it so much is that it spells out precisely what language is; a method by which people can communicate, intelligibly, in writing or orally.

We have developed and perfected language skills through this brilliant method over centuries. So we have no excuses whatsoever for neglecting it.

Yet this is exactly what we are doing and I see it happening at an alarming rate.

Of even more concern is that no-one is creating an  alternative method. Can no-one see it happening.

We have Lost Most of our Natural Instincts

Natural instincts retained by other creatures, were lost by man long ago. Thankfully, we still have the ability to See, Speak, Smell and Hear which are vital to communication.

If we lose our language skills intelligible communication will become impossible. 

Have you Experienced any of the Following?

• Do you find people reluctant to talk, preferring instead to communicate exclusively via chat boxes, text messages and emails?
• Do you see a general inability to write concisely? Poor grammar and truncated messages which lead to misunderstanding. Resulting in time and money lost by more and more follow-up messages, like ‘I don’t understand. Please explain.’ You will find more related information on this subject in my post here
• Have you noticed inability to write and speak in a comprehensible way, leading to confusion and frustration? The messages continue back and forth. Nothing gets resolved and the communication breaks down because of loss of language skills.
• Do you notice how many people have shorter attention spans? Often, they can only deal with one written question at a time. Each email you write has to be broken into several shorter messages to achieve anything.
• Do you think a short phone or Skype call may clear things up in a jiffy? But for some inexplicable reason, people avoid speaking. So the broken telephone syndrome continues.

 Ignoring Natural Dialogue leads to Language Barrier Problems

Reluctance to meet and speak, or just speak, erodes natural human interaction. It is counter- productive when people avoid the chance to observe body language, through which building business or personal relationships and ideas flow.

Avoiding an integral part of our psyche erodes the ability to listen which is essential to any intelligible communication. Through fear, laziness or inability, we will lose touch with ourselves and others if we are not listening. Hearing is not enough.

Shutting out the Natural World Impairs Social Interaction

More and more people are isolating themselves from society and the natural world.

Plugged into a mobile device for any length of time, blocks out what is happening in the natural world that surroundsus. It creates isolation and indifference, resulting in disinterest in all things natural. We lose touch with reality if we disassociate ourselves with nature. Yet we are doing it in droves.

We are not grounded and the inability to communicate is compounded, leading to further withdrawal.

If we allow ourselves to be dragged into a silent world of robotic, pseudo interaction without a whimper, we will lose control.

Final Thoughts

There is no excuse for poor language skills.

We have all the tools we need to be able to communicate and interact more effectively than at any time in our history.

But do we have the desire to educate our children through our languages? And teach them that those languages must be preserved? If not, we will see a breakdown in society much quicker than we can imagine, and the joy of writing which I wrote about in this post will be lost.

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Updated April 2024