Now lets take it back a few years when cell phones were not attached to everyone's hand. Those were the days when real communication was everywhere. You could learn about people, places or things around you instead of texting your best friend who you will see in a hour. Communication has changed so drastically. We now communicate through social media.
While abroad in Germany, many of us didn't have texting, calling or wifi. This made it extremely easy to get to know the people around you and pay attention to our surroundings. Instead of texting or checking Twitter every five minutes, we were able to pay attention during our two bike tours, the castle tour, and get to just hang out at dinner in the beer gardens. Instead of being glued to our phones yesterday, we were able to look out the window of our two hour train ride and see more of Germany. When normally you would look down at your phone in an awkward situation (which everyone does) we can look around and laugh. Dinner doesn't consist of a vibration from a text message or email, but instead the laughter and smiles from interesting stories an funny jokes. The constant distraction that is social media really hinders the ability to develop incredible friendships.
For instance, the past two nights in the hostel we have all sat around and just talked and gotten to know each other. I can almost tell you where everybody is from and some sort of interesting fact about them. I would of never been able to do that if social media was around the past two weeks. But yes I'll admit, when there is free wifi, I don't hesitate to check my Instagram or Snapchat, but it only lasts for a couple of minutes then I want to get back to everyone.
Social media is an incredible invention and has made life easier in numerous way but it has made face to face communication dwindle. So I encourage you to put your phone down for a day, or even a hour or two. See who you can talk to and what you can learn from them. I guarantee that those friendships will be the last ones to fade!
Caroline Krcelic
21 University
of South Carolina, School of Journalism and Mass Communications students and two professors are spending two weeks in Munich and Berlin Germany, as part of a May class. The object is to learn about convergence journalism and develop multimedia stories and communication skills that extend beyond the classroom. During this three-week class students will interview, write, photograph and video Germans and discover how different media's role is in this country.
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