Audra Nuru, professor of communication studies and family studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, was featured in Time magazine discussing communication habits experts say people should abandon in 2026. Nuru highlighted how behaviors such as overusing artificial intelligence tools, leaving messages unanswered, and offering mixed signals can erode authenticity and emotional clarity, emphasizing that effective communication depends on intention, transparency and human connection.
From the article:
Throughout 2025, something strange happened to our messages: They all started sounding the same. LinkedIn posts, emails, and even opening lines on dating apps became polished but oddly interchangeable, says Audra Nuru, a professor of communication studies and family studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. “Messages lost their pulse – there’s no sense of who’s behind the words,” she says. “They read like templates instead of something written by an actual person.”
In the coming year, Nuru suggests using tools like ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner, rather than a stand-in for your own voice. “When everything starts to sound polished and predictable, we lose the small markers that make communication feel human,” she says. “We lose the quirks, hesitations, warmth, and lived experience that tell someone, ‘I’m here with you.’”
