Look me in the eyes

I find myself doing this too....

Has anyone else noticed that less and less people look each other in the eyes anymore? Are we teaching each other this?

I have a friend who just got back from Columbia and he recounted that he was borderline unnerved by the fact that people looked him dead in the eyes when they talked to him. I am a firm beleiver that this is a direct result of a widespread decrease in personal confidence. I feel like the more time we spend texting and emailing and IMing, the less time we interact.

It is not as if this ability to interact is no longer important in life. We still have to interview, to make good impressions, we still need to woo the opposite sex, we still need to be human. We are animals and it is something that we rely on to read each other. (A neat study of this is in the book Traffic. It is a study on how and why we drive the way we do. A great read)

So coaches and parents, this is a job for us. Request that our children and our athletes look us in the eyes, insist that they vocalize their feelings. Do not rely on the digital media. It will help them in life and in how they feel about themselves.