watch: A world renowned public speaker in Moncton says technology has become the number one means of communicating among young people, but what does that mean for our future communicators. Shelley Steeves takes a look.
MONCTON – A world-renowned public speaker has a lot to say about how to communicate with today’s youth.
Moncton’s Joe Grondin is an expert communicator and was chosen to compete at Toastmaster’s World Championships for Public Speaking.
Grondin was an educator for more than 30 years, but this year he is retiring to pursue a career as an inspirational speaker.
“I wanted to be able to inspire to motivate adults to create that positive report with children,” he said.
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Grondin believes if parents lack “real” face time with their kids, it could impact their ability to communicate once they venture out into the real world.
“The less you read body language, the less you will be able to read that body language and I think that is going to be maybe a problem down the road,” he said.
“If the children are screen timing five to seven hours a day with a computer or technology, they are not outside, they are not socializing, they are not having that one-on-one, that is a skill.”
Moncton’s Stephen Parker could not be more proud of his son Matt who’s graduating this year. But he believes one-on-one conversation skills are getting lost with our youth.
“It is hard to communicate. They are always texting and Facebook and Instagram, whatever all those things are,” Parker said.
His son, Matt, says that is simply how they connect.
“Mostly over our phones like text message and things like that we have a group chat with all of our friends,” he said.
“I find that face-to-face conversation is deteriorating. He doesn’t have face-to-face conversations with his friends as much as he should be,” Parker said.
Some experts believe failing to develop one-on-one communication skills could make today’s youth less empathetic and sensitive to the needs of others.
All the more reason, Grondin says, for parents to act as mentors – and put their own phones away.
“I think it has to happen both ways, our children are watching our every move and they are modeling what we are doing.”
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