Blurring the gap
While wiling away the hours on Twitter (reminds me of hanging out in IRC chat rooms. I think I still have mIRC on my computer somewhere…) @ArtofthFirebird posted a link to an interesting article. On the blog Sweet Tea & Straight Talk, the writer talks about how the lines of social media and real life interaction have blurred. You can read it here – Offline. Online. Where Do the Lines Blur?
What do you think? Are you finding your real life communications have moved more online? Are you on Facebook, MySpace, Beebo, LiveJournal? Do you Tweet with people you know in real life? Do you write letters and post them (snail mail) anymore or just e-mails to friends and relatives? Are you getting less cards in the mail and more virtually? Is this a good thing?
Actually, I'm something of an anomaly. My communications moved mostly online in the early 1990s, with CompuServe at first, then into email, then gradually into forums and Facebook and Twitter. So this isn't new to me at all — I can't count the number of friends I've made online. I even met my husband via Match.com (thanks, Match.com)!
For me it's been a good thing. One, I loathe the telephone (don't ask why, it's a personal quirk). I use it but I don't like it. Two, if I have to sit down and write a letter it just doesn't happen, at least since my grandmother passed away in 2003 (and I wasn't very good about writing her).
As a college professor I think online communications have been very beneficial. Students used to have to come to my office to ask questions or just talk, and the majority of them wouldn't. With email and now Facebook/Twitter, they are far more likely to actually communicate with me outside of class, and get the information they need FAST.
Facebook is the only social media site I'm on, and I wouldn't say that my friendships have blurred…my FB friends are long-lost and/or far-away friends (which has been wonderful) but I don't really interact on FB with neighbors or friends that I see face-to-face on a regular basis.
As for actual notes and letters…geez, who writes those anymore? I do still send real thank you notes, but no letters, which is a little sad. I'm old enough to remember writing–and receiving–handwritten letters, and receiving a letter in the mail is a joy that future generations will never experience.
Whether this monumental change in the way we communicate is a good or a bad thing is irrelevant; this is the way it is.
I hate tweeting! I can't believe the non-events that are posted in people's tweets. Am I the only one who feels that these are the same people who tortured others years ago with home movies of their genius kids? Facebook, on the other hand, is a nice way of reconnecting with people who you lost touch with long ago. I don't visit my site often, but it's reassuring to know that those people still exist. Nah, I never send real mail anymore except holiday cards. I do remember, as do you, the joy of receiving real mail in the mail box (handwritten notes from friends who loved the Rolling Stones as I did.)