Poignant Absense Of Letters
February 1, 2009
It was kind of difficult to decide who to write a thank you note to. This sounds slightly pessimistic of me but I didn’t have a list of potential names vying for position of most influential. Even then, some names in my influence-list were negative influences, or ones marked with a checkered past. I’m not sure what drove this situation to exist in my life; but it is a somewhat troubling one to think about. Honestly, I blame the excessive pace of life for some of this. I got married young (No kids, though my wife and I answer the “Any kids?” frequently) and both my wife and I set to complete our college degrees. Through some immaturity into the mixture and you have a formula to create a hectic couple years! The interesting thing that I’ve found is people don’t always have time for other people. But, we get online in our homes and keep up on other people, maybe 30-40 friends in 10-15 minutes and call it good.
The interesting thing for me is how the situation Neil Postman described on page 69 must contribute to this lack of meaningful connection, “information pours in… an even greater source of information is waiting to be retrieved… like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice we are awash in information.” Maybe our new “information –era” is bringing the death of meaning in conversation. To absorb the information which claims precedence over other areas of our lives we must choose to spend meaningful time carefully. To develop a real relationship takes time, to take time means to spend less time addressing the myriad of information sources at work, school, and play. How much more convenient would it be to influence someone via Facebook? Just type a few encouraging messages every few days, sprinkle some quotes from famous people in there. Maybe correspond on specific matters here and there. But it doesn’t require much commitment of time, you can address the relationship when you want to, in whatever state you feel like, and put as much time into your thoughts as you please. How would a recipient of a CMC message know if you spent 1 minute or 1 hour drafting a message? If they were present, engaged in conversation they would quickly realize their influencor doesn’t feel they are a priority. But CMC removes any sense of wavering commitment to the benefit of the influencor.
As I became cognizant of this point I lost motivation to write letters. By now you must be able to clearly understand my thoughts towards an email. It would have been drafted quickly and more tritely than the hand written draft would have been. The truth is my email would have gone to the lesser of the two influences. Because I know the impact a hand written letter bears with it these days. Writing letters has become a thing of the past. Who has the time? Who has the time… but I think in our haste to address all sources of information we loose something in ourselves, some potential for a more fulfilling life.
