Keeping in touch (girlfriend, conversations, reasons, cousin)

[igneel]

text, call, write a letter if you got their address (I prefer letter than email) or MSN/YM (any messenger)

[Mooseketeer]

Originally Posted by ChessieMom

Gosh I so agree. Isn't a letter just wonderful to get in the mail?

I love snail mail. I must be one of the last old fuddy doddies to still get excited when I get a hand-written letter ! My best friend is also my pen-pal ( this is how we met) and we have resisted giving each other our email addresses and cell phone numbers on purpose so that we do not end up giving in and emailing each other.

I find when you actually write a letter you somehow put far more thought into it and it becomes more like a journal almost . Emails have a way of making us write pathetic one liners and we lose this art of true communication.


I love the look and smell of paper, the fun stamps you can use, I even have a few ink stamps to liven up my letters too !

I like the fact that writing IS more of an effort, it forces you to think more about how you write and what you write. I am a prolific letter writer but sadly the numbers I write has declined drastically since I was a teenager as these never seem appreciated , and rarely answered.

I also write postcards and cards to people a lot . To say thank you for a lovely dinner party, or simply say "hi".

I am saddened by the demise of the letter. I feel the letter is a medium for more substance and allows you to truly get to know someone properly. I have never met Rachel my pen-pal ( even though we only live 200 miles apart) but we are best friends and have seen each other through a lot. Letters really can be a wonderful way to make friends and retain them.

I will never understand how someone has 800 "friends" on facebook. I have no desire for 800 so called friends, I would take one wonderful Rachel over 800 superficial acquaintances anyday.

People mock me for still using letters as a mode of communication but I think I will always favour it over others. Even the phone . Letters are to me always quite revealing of a person's personality and their lives which is maybe why people no longer like them. We try so hard to be someone else and social networks are a perfect place for that.

Epistolary correspondence is a much deeper and much truer reflection of someone's real face IMO.

I am "only" 43 but sometimes feel as though I am from some other period in time , the looks I get from people when I suggest they turn off their cells in public or try to enjoy life without constant electronic support. Many of my acquaintances and friends seem unable to live even one hour without some form of audio visual stimulation ( TV, MP3, Blackberry, Iphone, Cell etc...),it is incomprehensible to me that we have become so dependent on what is making us the most unsociable society in world history. We have become a society of socially inept, selfish, self absorbed, self obsessed, arrogant, technology reliant creatures with all the originality of bacteria.



To me technology is a tool and I use it because it is useful. But I want it to serve me not to enslave me as it obviously does so many people. We have lost sight of what human interaction is and yet we have never been so connected which to me is profoundly sad.


We do not wish to constantly available to be of service or support to others but to boost our self esteem that we are liked enough and important enough for people to call us or "befriend" us on Facebook. It has become a way to validate our own lifes and its worthiness which to me is utterly pathetic. We seem to be nothing without constant attention.

It never ceases to amaze me that anyone is arrogant enough to believe their three lines entry on twitter or facebook is worthwhile of an audience, I find that utterly bizarre and repellent I must admit. Are we truly so shallow that someone knowing someone else is in the supermarket buying oranges or is going to the toilet should be of interest to ANYONE ?! .

Of course I am proven utterly wrong by the popularity of those social networking sites so what do I know... I personally can't think of anything more boring and prefer to interact one on one with other human beings but it seems I am in a tiny and ever decreasing minority.

[ChessieMom]

Originally Posted by Mooseketeer

I suggest they turn off their cells in public or try to enjoy life without constant electronic support. Many of my acquaintances and friends seem unable to live even one hour without some form of audio visual stimulation ( TV, MP3, Blackberry, Iphone, Cell etc...),it is incomprehensible to me that we have become so dependent on what is making us the most unsociable society in world history. We have become a society of socially inept, selfish, self absorbed, self obsessed, arrogant, technology reliant creatures with all the originality of bacteria.

We do not wish to constantly available to be of service or support to others but to boost our self esteem that we are liked enough and important enough for people to call us or "befriend" us on Facebook. It has become a way to validate our own lifes and its worthiness which to me is utterly pathetic. We seem to be nothing without constant attention.

Wish I could rep you for this^^. This is the best thing I've read on this forum in a long time. So so true.

[gentlearts]

I am in touch with friends from 30+ years ago via email. The truth is that if it were not for email, some of them might have fallen by the wayside. Even though messages are only once or twice a year in some cases, it makes all the difference.
Although I'm on Facebook, I never go there except to check up on what my kids are doing.

[STT Resident]

I'm with you almost all the way, Mouseketeer. I'm considerably older than you and grew up with snail mail and always loved hand writing and receiving long and chatty letters. I still write long letters but now compose them on a word processing program and then cut and paste them to email. Where I live now I don't have home mail delivery and am quite a way from the PO - plus my old hands aren't as nimble as they used to be where handwriting is concerned so this way is easier for me.

Unfortunately I've lost several old contacts in the last few years because of the current preoccupation with FB (which I detest for most of the reasons you've already mentioned!). Once in a rare while I'll Skype with my remaining family in England but long and interesting letters back and forth every few months suit us all much better.

I'm not into long telephone chats as a rule and I wouldn't have a clue how to text even if I had a cellphone. A dinosaur and not worried about it! Cheers!

[Mooseketeer]

Originally Posted by STT Resident

I'm with you almost all the way, Mouseketeer. I'm considerably older than you and grew up with snail mail and always loved hand writing and receiving long and chatty letters. I still write long letters but now compose them on a word processing program and then cut and paste them to email. Where I live now I don't have home mail delivery and am quite a way from the PO - plus my old hands aren't as nimble as they used to be where handwriting is concerned so this way is easier for me.

Unfortunately I've lost several old contacts in the last few years because of the current preoccupation with FB (which I detest for most of the reasons you've already mentioned!). Once in a rare while I'll Skype with my remaining family in England but long and interesting letters back and forth every few months suit us all much better.

I'm not into long telephone chats as a rule and I wouldn't have a clue how to text even if I had a cellphone. A dinosaur and not worried about it! Cheers!

I know what you mean about handwriting. I have an appalling handwriting to begin with ( I could so easily be a Doctor with my writing !) and when you are writing seven pages it starts to become almost painful. I think Rachel might have had to learn to interpret the hieroglyphs which pass as handwriting for me !

I am not too fond of long phone calls either. I don't know why, I suppose I prefer to either chat face to face or write. Phone calls often turn to the inanre really quickly in my experience and I just have not got the stamina for it.


I am glad I am in such exalted company anyway, Dinosaurs we might well be but so what ? We might be the last specimens before the final social networking meteorites truly do render us extinct , the last line of defence between the modern world and the good old days so it is worth it.

We should see ourselves as defenders of times gone by and proud of it too...

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by ChessieMom

Gosh I so agree. Isn't a letter just wonderful to get in the mail?

I think I'll only reread old ones from now on. I don't believe I'd get another real letter in my life. To be fair, I haven't written one for ages, either.

[KatieCountrycm]

I limit myself to only talking to people in person 90% of the time. I hate talking on the phone.

[dave nz]

Face to face.......All the online means mainly as well as text and phone call. While I'm on FB I hardly use it, except the private message.
Would rather communicate to people one to one.

[HurricaneDC]

i think i'll try and skype with some of my far away friends as well. Almost as good as meeting in person.