A Letter in the Mailbox

“As electric media proliferate, whole societies at a time become discarnate, detached from mere bodily or physical ‘reality’ and relieved of any allegiance to or sense of responsibility to or for it.”—Pg. 96

Think about it, when was the last time you wrote a letter? And I mean a real letter in a blank piece of paper, not a note in a greeting card aided by some mass produced quote. Most likely the answer is in years, to some it may even be never. Not long ago I used to write letters in a regular basis and I can honestly say I missed the personal touch a letter has in comparison to an email. Don’t quite know how to explain it, even when you know the email is written from the heart and specially sent to you is just not the same as a piece of paper. The only reasons I found on these is the fact I can touch the letter, (sure I could touch the email, but I will have to print it. Just seems like there is need of much technology to be able to get an email in my hands.) And the email was typed while the letter is handwriting. I think there is something fascinating on being able to recognize someone’s handwriting, is like you just know something unique about them.

In my opinion the irony in all these new emerging media it is providing societies endless way to communicate with each other, but at the same time the communication seems to be becoming less and less personal. Perhaps the main reason is that it not only requires for people to see less of each other in order to have any sort of relationship, but also there is not even the need to speak. One example is Facebook and its birthday reminders.  In a sense it’s a good thing since it is hard to keep up with everyone birthdays especially to people one is not close at the moment but at some point in their lives you were. Also is good because it gives you the mean of getting your birthday wishes across people you will have no other way of contacting them. Still it makes people lazy and often do they not pick up the phone to say happy birthday to people to whom without Facebook you will have normally call. Last year on my birthday an old classmate called me to wish happy birthday. He actually said  I just like to call people if I have their phone numbers, I know no one does it anymore with Facebook and text messages and twitter, but I just like to call. Honestly we are not great friends, we never even hang out outside school, we were classmates for a couple years in college and the only reason we exchange numbers was to help each other in class. Without Facebook he will probably never had known/remember my birthday, but he had my number and opted to do it by speaking and not by an informal wall post.

 Not for one second have I thought emerging media is the cause of making relationships less personal, the only ones causing these is ourselves. The problem relies on people not understanding the proper use for each medium we have available today. Of course is simpler and less tiring to send an email than writing a letter and then going to the post office. Sure posting in people’s Facebook wall is fun and cute, but do you really need to have personal conversations in there for the world to know? I do use Email to connect with my friends and family back home because is instantaneous on comparison to letters that take week, but I still call them is even faster to get a response if I need it. Sure a phone call costs more money and its amazing how people are not willing to spend money in long distance because you can do it for free online. I understand you have to take advantage of the resources available nowadays, but sometimes people cannot be in front of a computer all the time, I mean we spent money on so much meaningless stuff I just don’t understand why is it so hard to spend in a phone call to someone that is part of your life. To me it seems people misunderstand and misused all these media to satisfy their cheapness and laziness.

Finally, I think people feel no responsibility of what they can cause by what they communicate through new media, like social media, because they have not fully grasp the concept of what it mean to post something online. People need to be educated that whatever is in the internet is there for the world to see. And in spite of all the ‘private settings’ someone will always see it.

All in all is not media that makes relationships less personal. It is us that misused the new ways of communication that come our way. Everyone gets used to what seems to be easier, faster and simpler and forget the importance of adding some personal touch when trying to show someone you care.

Confession

This is the deal: I'm 23 years-old and my best friend just told me that I need to get some medication or start talking about stuff instead of letting it all build up inside. There is no way I'm going on medication, I just will not take them even if I buy them. I'm not sure how I feel about therapy. Not quite ready to start talking to stranger about my life. So I have opted for some self-therapy. Not long ago I used to keep a journal and updated it often. Then something called college happen and I started doing it less and less, I really don't know why. Now that I had to start a blog due to my class I decided I should keep a personal blog too. Now, to whoever may read this, don't get excited I'm not going to tell the world every single aspect of my life! I'll start writing in my journal again for those personal details.

Some things you should know, that I did not include in my About Me section:

• Sarcastic
• Die hard Cowboys Fan, Like all sports in general
• Loves playing Roulette and Black Jack
• Frozen Margaritas are my favorite drink
• Love Movies
• Enjoy reading a good book
• Every now and then I'll write a blog in spanish
• I want a puppy
• I have always wanted to open my own organization to help children around the world

Now you know more about me and the reason behind finally starting my own blog. It may not make sense and it will jump from all kinds of different topics, but I promise it will be 100% honest.

Multiple Languages

In pg. 77 Walter Ong writes,

"Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form. More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness."

Now a days with all the means of communication available to us, the way our conscious works when we write has changed again. The way we write is directly affected not only by the audience but also by the media we choose to communicate with. Whether is e-mail, blogs, twitter, Facebook, texts, chats, etc. Even though technically you could write the same way in all the mediums, if you are a common user of any of them your conscious just knows how to write depending in the medium. For example, in this precise moment as I write this blog I know I do not have to worry about being 100% formal in contrast if I had to turn in these in an email in the form as a document attachment. Of course I have to make myself understandable and not just abbreviation like if these were my personal blog, but by knowing that these is a blog I am aware that my form of writing can be more free (no rules like when writing a paper).

In e-mail you can be as formal or as informal you wish to be, it all depends in to whom the e-mail is addressed. Certainly when you writing an e-mail to your boss, future employer or professor it looks nothing like when you write an e-mail to your mom, friend or classmate. Yes, this is something obvious, but what we don’t realize is that we do not have to think about it anymore. When you write an e-mail to your mother you don’t think, “oh it doesn't matter how I write it” or when writing to your boss you don’t think, “This has to be a formal e-mail and I have to check spelling and grammar carefully.” The moment you begin to write the e-mail you just begin to write the way you are supposed to write without even realizing it. You are completely conscious the way you are supposed to write depending in the person without having to analyze it.

Perhaps at the beginning of using twitter you did have to think about the limitation of characters when posting something, but after a while you just know it. Of course not every post comes out exactly at 140 characters in the first attempt, but when writing it you are always aware of the limitations you have. Due to this limitation the use of abbreviating words in these particular medium is highly used. I know that when I use twitter I’m conscious that I’m going more than likely need to use abbreviation so now I just use them automatically I really don’t think any more if I’m going to need them or not. I guess the more I used the twitter, although not being aware of it, my mind is now set to write certain words in abbreviation to be able to post whatever I want and most important making myself clear in 140 characters or less. On the other hand, in Facebook posts can be pretty much as long as you want them to be. Facebook users still use abbreviations, but they know they are not limited so they are able to say much more and perhaps in a way even feel more comfortable that they would be understood.

The way we write texts has changed a lot as well. First, although there is a limit of characters per text, given that most people have unlimited texts or a number rarely reached in a month, the limitation is not a big factor. I think the biggest limitation in texts, in terms of length, is that no one likes to have conversation that takes up to 4 texts space every time you receive/sent one. Second, I remember when my cell back in 2001-2002 (well, that didn't make me sound old at all) did not have auto-correct for spelling. Finally, all these “abbreviation slang,” like LOL, JK, BTW, did not exist. I think that autocorrect changes the way we write texts mainly in two different ways. First, we don’t have to worry about knowing how to spell we rely on our phone to provide us with the right answer. Of course these can turn out to end in awkward texts that make no sense whatsoever. Consciously when we write texts we know spelling is not a main thing to worry about, but we do need to verify that auto-correct did not completely change our text. In addition when using “abbreviation slang” unless we add the word to the phone dictionary, if auto-correct is ON is going to try to change it to something else. True the auto-correct feature can just be turned off and one will avoid all the trouble, but at the same time it makes writing a text simpler by not having to worry about spelling. I don’t think must people see spelling to be important in texts, but it can change the meaning of the text so much that leads to misinterpretation. Perhaps that’s why some people don’t like to text or don’t text about things that really matter.

The way I see it writing in each of these different media available to us is sometimes almost as writing in different languages. I have been speaking, writing, and reading English and Spanish since I was in Kindergarten. As I grew older I realized that depending on the language I was talking, writing, listening, or reading it was the same language I was thinking on. It’s the same way my mind works when writing in each of these different mediums, I don’t have to figure out how I am supposed to write, I’m just conscious about it.