Lessons From Sports Talk Radio

I was listening to Mike and Mike in the morning on the local sports talk radio station today and the two of them got into a conversation I found fascinating. Mike Greenberg (Greenie) was talking about how he is addicted to his trio and the two started discussing Trios and Blackberries and PDAs and cell phones and the like.

I found it interesting that Mike Golic, the jock, a former football player, was talking about how such devices have led to a breakdown in communication. Golic told a story about his son and daughter sitting next to each other on the couch and his son laughs. Golic asks what’s so funny and his son replies that his sister (Golic’s daughter) just texted him something funny. The two of them are sitting on the couch, no more than five feet apart, and they are texting each other. That was when Golic went into lamenting how these devices are preventing kids from learning to communicate, to talk with each other.

I agree with Mike Golic. I think that such devices prevent people from learning how to carry on a conversation. I see this with some of my college students. They text during class but have trouble delivering speeches. I would like to think that in some way I am doing my part helping to prevent or slow down the process with some kids by teaching the art of Public Speaking.

Golic also pointed out how when it comes to texting, shorthand and abbreviations are used and how that can lead to more problem in terms of students learning how to write properly. Again, this is something I have seen with my students. Students writing “Should of” instead of “Shoulda” because they don’t really this is a slurring of the words “Should” and “Have”.

Obviously there are students who know how to speak and write. Obviously these problems are not true of everyone. Still, I thought the conversation effectively pointed out some of the things that I, and other teachers, are seeing today.