And how dreadful it must have been.
(I'm being serious by the way - down forever with that attitude that social media is somehow lesser than what came before it and isn't a massive improvement simply because nostalgia)
It wasn't
dreadful - because we didn't know any better. People made due with the technology that was available at the time. The advantages of social media are numerous - but IMHO they have in many ways cheapened relationships between individuals. It takes time and energy to write a hand-written letter - it's not something you can crank out on email in the 5 minutes of downtime you have at work. I always added artwork into my letters and gave my handwriting special artistic flair. I remember my sister wrote me letters from college when I was a kid and she used different colored ink pens for
each word. Those are the kind of personal touches that people get nostalgic about - and I don't blame them. When my Mother died I found a cardboard box full of hand-written letters and cards that I had sent her going all the way back to before I was even 10 years old. Sure you can save and file your email letters...but they will just be fonts on a monitor. And I'm glad my Mom had something to hold in her hands and look at.
Electronic devices are awesome - I love them and use them too - but it is different and a lot less personal. And they've also somewhat handicapped us into thinking that we're helpless without them - newsflash: we're not. One day I went to get a haircut and forgot my phone -
OMG what if the car breaks down??? How will I remember my next appointment if I don't put it on my e-calendar like right away???? What if my wife wants me to pick up something on the way home???? Well guess what - I survived. And if I broke down I would have survived too. My wife even forgave me for not getting her text message.
I have caught my daughter writing things to people in e-conversations that she would never say in front of them. In some ways it's liberating to be behind a computer and chatting - but in others - it can be extremely detrimental. And e-conversations, posts etc often have a tendency to get taken out of contex. It may be just her shy personality , but from not having any real face time with people - it wasn't until she was 17 that she would even consider ordering for herself at a restaurant - or going to the check-out counter and paying for something without an adult present. That is really weird to me. Hell I was taking the Path train from New Jersey into Times Square all by myself when I was just 13 years old.
I also see that people have a tendency during special events to take more time posting about it in real time than they do just enjoying the freaking event. What is more important? Your experience at (for example) a concert, or all your friends knowing that you're at the concert and now they're playing x song?
I'd wager you have read Asimov's 'The Naked Sun." That's the kind of world I sometimes believe we're headed for: humans so reclusive in their own electronic lives that we only see each other through holographic images - and the thought of actually being in the presence of someone in person is shocking.
I do not destroy your idea that e-conversations are real conversations. I challenge the notion that because they are more convenient that they are better.
