Are Nt's going to have worse social skills in the future?

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The experts already say "yes."

We've long since forgotten how to do simple things like handwritten letters, thank you notes, etc.

There's also a loss of the value of patience. When you can have everything within 60 minutes, you don't learn how to wait for anything.

It can undo human society and civilization because nothing worthwhile comes quickly. If we all give into the need for instant gratification, society will eventually collapse from it.

Well you could go a bloody long way to dissuade me of that opinion of you if you refrained from using such a ridiculous term NT's, I mean quite seriously what is an NT ... yes I know the technical meaning of the term, but the connotations when used on WP are generally far more expansive and demeaning. Even in your post it appears that you take the approach of the A-typical 'nt' and 'aspie' sorry Shen but there are no such beings.

for example you write "We aspies communicate via machines because we don't always necessarily like direct social interactions like nt's do. We feel safer communicating to our computers rather than face to face with people"

Hate to tell you that I have aspergers and I really try to get along socially not because I feel that it is important to integrate with the "NT's" but because I really want to, trouble is I suck at it. There are multitudinous hordes of so called "NT's" who also suck at social gatherings and feel safer behind a keyboard, or is Second Life, WOW and the rest, just populated by aspies.

So whilst I agree that the rise of computer socialisation is quite possibly detrimental quit with the us and them BS

I on't normally refer to them as neurotypical people, I just hear people use that word on this sight. I'm not stupid, I know some normal people(what I actually refer to them even if they aren't essentially normal and have mild disabilities 'cause no one is essentially normal) like to communicate via mmo or forum. I don't stink at communicating i real life, I'm just shy, even on mmo's. I don't understand why some of you guys are implying that i'm elitist. I abhor elitism. Implying that I'm elitist is offensive. I'm just trying to get a point across. Anyways you're an adult and have very little say in the matter because you aren't in high school or college. Kids text all the time at school. Its an addiction, so much that they have replaced talking via phone because not only is it an easy way to not get caught by the teacher, they're used to it. They phased it out everywhere. And now people includin text-savvy adults(who inherit it from the kids who show them how to text) are dying in car-crashes.

Lots of ink and electrons have been spilled on this subject. I think the term "social skills" is too broad and vague for this purpose. There are social changes brought about by all this ubiquitous technology, but what skills actually get used less because of it?

1)handwriting skills: people resort to handwriting now only when typing is not approved by etiquette (thank you note) or is less convenient (jotting a note someplace). My own handwriting has deteriorated through lack of use and I was using it for a good 20 years before computers come along.

2)spelling skills; proper spelling and grammar won't fit on a phone screen so out the window they go

3)patience: per zeronetgain, patience takes practice and few people are practicing anymore because it is often no longer necessary. Patience qualifies as a social skill if people are becoming more impatient with each other


I have heard the theory that all this tech interaction is eroding personal real life interaction. That seems to be your theory too. But I don't see any good evidence for it. It is assumed that if people talk to each other on cell phones and on message boards more, they will have decreased face-to-face interaction. But is this true? I don't think conversation and interaction is a finite well that people can either draw from using tech or face-to-face and that using the former means the latter must diminish. What I actually see young people doing around me is upping the overall quantity of conversation. They text while simultaneously talking to friends in person, frequently about the text they are making. They make cell phone calls and flip-flop between talking to the person on the phone and talking to the person standing next to them. In other words, they multi-task. I've tried doing this myself but stumble because I'm an old dog and can't learn new tricks. But young people apparently do it with great ease. They don't have to choose between tech and face-to-face interaction as both you and many magazine article writers have assumed. Instead, they do both simultaneously.

ShenLong, I think two things - a) your being entirely too nice right now to these people and b) what's happening in this thread is pretty much emotive barbarism - because you've been kind enough to take people's heaping servings of self-righteousness thus far they keep piling it on like they want you do go through some great grief and penance for your transgression for something they'd likely just blow off if they did themselves. This kind of thing almost always tickles my gag reflex and I find myself amazed when so many people hear are jumping in on it like they smelled blood in the water.

fair enough, well you have just learnt a lesson, many in PPR will find demeaning references to 'nts' stupid at best.

Back to your post I could not agree with you more, a great swathe of people are losing precious skills, and not just in the ability to converse, sport and recreation are copping a hit - how many kids are playing sport on a computer rather than with a bat and ball, how many kids now think they can play a guitar beacuse they can match up the colours on a screen to the same patterns on a plastic "fretboard''.

Where I think you maybe wrong is the extent to which this will benefit the socially inept. Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, and texting all still require the user to have a sense of the intention of the writer, a skill that us "aspies" constantly demonstrate a lack of here on WP

I don't think ShenLong was using the term "NT" in a demeaning way.

Crap, the reason I jumped on Shen's use of "NT's" is not through some primitive barbaric instinct. Rather I am sick and tired of all the "nt' bashing and "aspies are the future of civilisation" chest thumping that goes on in other parts of WP. I for one will do my level best to try and prevent that kind of BS getting a foot hold in PPR.

I presume you are refering to this "many in PPR will find demeaning references to 'nts' stupid at best"

Agreed, I could have written that better. I did not mean to intimate that Shen had been demeaning.

There was none of that in the OP. Shen was making an observation about society as a whole, not bashing NTs.

OK. What did you mean by that, then?

I disagree and agree. I disagree that people are losing the ability to converse because of texting and other tech. What I see all around me is young people multi-tasking. They can text and talk at the same time. I have not seen any decrease in conversation amongst those who also text, use cell phones and message boards. What I have seen is an increase in multi-tasking: texting while talking, talking to somebody on a cell phone and being able to flip-flop bewteen that and talking to the person standing next to them.

About Wii and Guitar Hero and similar, I agree.

As the OP has already stated he only used this stupid term because he had seen it used on WP. Generally when NT's is used here it is in a negative context. By using this term he (as far as I am concerned) unwittingly associated himself with the idiot 'aspie elitists'. Also by being sucked in to use this term he basically ignored the fact the not having aspergers does not automatically make a person neurotypical.

Neurotypical when used in a scientific manner has its place. When used here on WP the vast majority of the time it is used in a derogatory, ill informed and often stupid manner

When I see it used on WP, I don't think of it as being derogatory. Maybe the intent was negative (in the other cases, not this particular case, I mean), and I didn't pick up on that negative intent and thought it was just a neutral descriptive term.

I can admit - he could have worded it a little better - but that said, anyone with decent reading comprehension could see what the thrust of the post was, and I sat there and watch the pile up of 'you said NT!'.



There's a difference between countering badly thought out ideologies - that's what we generally do in this folder anyway - and coming unglued over buzz words. Some forums are dedicated to that crap, occasionally there are flourishes of it around WP, here at least in PPR - I think people have a bit too much gumption to fall for that.

Those who are able to multi task can multi task their technology, yes, but this topic seems to be more about social skills than an increase or decrease in communications. A person can be talking to someone beside them and texting at the same time, but one cannot deny the detachment which is associated with the social interaction that has been reduced to text on a screen.