Unplug The Computer and Let's Talk

By Tracy Farr
Editor, The Daily Spittoon

This summer, Crappie County Community College will once again offer a continuing education class in the lost art of face-to-face communication.  The class, which is titled Unplug The Computer and Let’s Talk, will begin in June and be taught by Ken Burke, professor of mass communication.

“In this age of email and instant messaging, we have lost the skill of talking to people face to face,” Burke said.  “This class shows people how to communicate with each other not only verbally but non-verbally, something that 21^st Century people are finding harder and harder to do these days.”

According to Burke, the class is designed to ease students away from a typed form of communication into a life of personal one-on-one conversations.

“The transition can be rough for some of our students, but we try to make it as painless as possible,” Burke said.  “We start off by letting them carry around their keyboards as a security blanket.  As they grow more comfortable with using their mouths to communicate, we take away the keyboard and put a mouse in their pockets.  The mouse gives them something to click on, but is unobtrusive to the other person.  Finally, we take away the mouse and give them an Ethernet necklace or bracelet to wear.  Not only does the necklace or bracelet give them a sense of still being connected, but it is very fashionable and a great conversation starter.”

During the class, students learn how to wink, grin, and roll their eyes without the use of emoticons; they learn how to keep their hands by their sides and not out in front of them as if they’re typing on a keyboard; and they learn how to actually laugh their ass off when something is funny instead of using acronyms that just imply it.

“Communicating with a living person is an art form that we can’t afford to lose,” Burke said.  “And if this class inspires just one person to have a face-to-face conversation with another person, inspires just one person to forgo the urge to whip off an email and wait for a response that may never come, then I feel we have made this world a better place in which to live.”

For more information about the class, write to Ken Burke at kburke@cccc.stinkycreek.edu.com.