19 November 2010

Facebook and Communicatimg

I was born in 1931 and grew up to participate in the growth of electronics devices and their spread into our daily lives. From manual typewriter to IBM Selectric to Apple IIe to IBM Pc. All the way through Windows to 7. The Internet and e-mail. And here we are now with iPods and iPhones and iPads and Kindle and Nook and who knows what’s next.

At the encouragement of my children, I opened an account on Facebook, just to see what all the fuss was about. Almost immediately, children and grandchildren wanted to be my “friend” which I became. That was it for a short while, until I started to figure out how to leave messages, look at their photos and comment on their postings. I really didn’t spend much time at it. Then I found that I could look at all the people they had listed as their friends, so I began collecting more and more friends; I’m up to 21 at last count. But the more I look at Facebook, the more I wonder about the art of communicating. Whatever happened to good old handwriting, where every word was spelled out? Where we waited anxiously for the Postman to deliver the notes and letters and cards? Where there was time enough in this world for all that to take place?

It seems that we are in such a rush these days to let everyone - well, just our Facebook “friends” - know that we just took a shower, or we’re going to the store, or Johnny looked at me funny do you think he really likes me. Why? Don’t we have time to sit down and compose a reasonably intelligent paragraph? LOL (whatever that means). And don’t get me started on the profanity I see from some of my descendants!

1 comment:

ellen abbott said...

I hear that from a lot of people, older people like ourselves about our language and ways of communicating...whatever happened to this whatever happened to that, as if people have stopped communicating because they don't write letters anymore or use abbreviated forms of words. People still communicate. In fact I would venture to say they communicate more now than ever have because there are so many ways to do it and it is so instant. I don't think. Where before when writing was your only option, you maybe heard from someone once or twice a year. When phones came along it didn't take long for the population to adopt that as their favorite means of communicating. Now we do it digitally. I don't think it means less to thank a person for a pleasant evening via email rather than to use penmanship and mail a thank you note. I'm not less sincere because I chose to use a more immediate method of conveying my gratitude.

By the way, the phone is my least favorite way to communicate. Actually that may be why I like email and social sites, I send my thoughts and then wait to get a response.

Oh, and nice to meet you.