Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Communication

The world has changed a lot in the last 15 years. When I was a freshman in college in 1996, I was just starting to use this thing called "e-mail". I was totally amazed by this new way of communicating. Now everyone walks around with portable computer in their pocket texting like there's no tomorrow. I guess the thing that gets lost sometimes is that we are having less and less interactions in person as are lives become increasingly "virtual". I have a problem sometimes because when I write e-mails and such I do it like I was actually speaking to that person. The thing is I forget that things sometimes take on different meanings without the tones and body language that accompany normal interaction. Things like sarcasm can come across very differently in typed words as compared to having that same conversation in person. I think part of is when you see something on the screen you don't like, there's a tendency to read it over and over again which in turn can make it seem worse than it actually was meant. I mean think of the last time you were talking to in person where you did the same thing. Among people I know it is pretty routine to take shots at each other in a joking manner of course, but if that was done via e-mail or text I bet the result would be different. So you end up pretty limited in what you can say. Anyway the point isn't that on shouldn't e-mail or text ever. I just believe though that this should not be a primary form of communication in lieu of good old face to face chatting with anyone who is important to you.

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