What's so Great about this Age of Communication

It's kind of strange to me that we've labeled this modern era as the age of communication. It's ironic because so many examples show us to be very poor communicators in our modern age. One quick example. According to marriage counselors, a breakdown in communication is listed as the number 1 destroyer of marriages. When you pair that fact with the fact that our current age sees more divorce than any age prior, it's kind of ironic that we would still call ourselves the age of communication. I think I know what the problem is though. I read an interesting proverb awhile back, that to me, explains exactly what's going on. "The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?" This statement was first made more than 3000 years ago, but oh how applicable it is to our current age of communication.

It hit me in that it reminded me of our current age. Though in our modern era, communication abounds, with text messaging, emails, and constant updates on facebook and twitter, meaningful communication seems to be dwindling rapidly. The Age of Communication is almost like a great roar drowning out the honest, rare whispers of wise counsel that often are lost in the fray of everything else going on. I think our Age of Communication is a sham an age which knows fewer words, yet preaches them all the louder in order to make up for it, an age that has nothing new to contribute, but speaks the same dribble all the louder just to make up for it. I don't know, maybe I'm being too hard on us.

The Age of Communication seems very close to another modern phenomenon: ambient light. There's a hilltop by my home that I often visit at night and watch the distant city beyond. There it sits, enshrouded in a glow of low-level brightness pervading all the night world. Though the ambient light is good for those traveling through the city, those wishing to gaze upward at the stars beyond are hindered and unable to take in the manifold array of tiny lights.

Our Age of Communication seems the same. Even though humanity communicates more now than it ever has before, it hasn't yet learned how to make the bulk of its communications meaningful, and our words often get lost in the vast humdrum of mediocrity. And because of our constant communications with those around us, we never perceive what a treasure real communication is, living a life blind to the vast array of twinkling thoughts that lies just overhead.


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Thanks for reading about Ben's view of the age of communication. If you want to read more, check out his blog Things I've Learned While Roaming the Earth.