I'm like the crypt keeper
The other day I was over at GH's Grammy's house, where one of GH's cousins and the cousin's friend also were. Both guys just graduated from high school and were talking about their plans for the fall. One of the topics that came up was how they would stay in touch with their friends. GH's Grammy asked, since the two would be attending schools in different states, if they would be emailing each other.
Friend: Nah, I would never email [Cousin]. He never checks his and he never writes back.
Cousin: That's true.
Friend: I don't really email anyone anymore because nobody really uses it. Just, like, my mom and her friends. I will email them. But for everybody else, they never check it and it could take days to get an answer. It's a lot easier just to text or get on Facebook.
Me: That's so funny. When I showed up for my freshman year of BYU they gave me an email address and that was such a big deal. I never had an email address before that because we didn't have the Internet at my house and neither did most of my friends.
They nodded politely at me, as you do for the old and feeble.
Me: So it sounds like, for you, email has now become the equivalent of what writing letters and sending them through the actual mail was for me when I went to college.
Cousin: Yeah, kind of.
And then I took them outside to show them my buggy. And my cotton gin.
Except now that I think about it, I don't use email as much anymore either, and maybe neither do the friends that I would normally email. Maybe it's that we have started liking the instant gratification of Facebook, or maybe when we sit down at the computer we are too busy looking at Pinterest or whatever. (Oh look, so-and-so just pinned something about moving checklists. I can assume from this that that she is 1) alive, and 2) moving. Good to know.) Or maybe we have gotten too lazy (or maybe efficient?) to sit down and type out whole entire emails that will just be read by only one person, because that is probably wasteful.
Anybody else have any thoughts about the ever-changing world in which we live in, as Sir Paul would say (ungrammatically?)
I'm Steph, a librarian and mom of 3 (not sure how that happened). Let's chat books, food, Sumptuous Literary Adaptations, poop, knitting and maybe some crazy Mormon Feminism.
14 comments:
I'm just wondering what it's going to be like in 20 years...maybe we'll just be sending brain signals to each other, no use for a computer or phone! It's crazy how quick technology changes!
I teach college kids. I had NO CLUE that my students wouldn't use email regularly without being told explicitly to look at it until it came up in a meeting before school started. It's not like I have another way to get in touch with them. Sure, they have my cellphone number. However, I told them explicitly NOT to program it in their phones because at a former #1 party school I have received legitimate drunk dials and texts. I don't want to be FB friends with them. So email it is.
Just to make all of us old biddies feel better, an anecdote:
I play music videos during the dead time before class starts. I called one of the songs 'peppy'. And then I curled up in my rocker with my afghan and fell asleep mid-sentence.
I love that quote from that movie!
I also remember the awesomeness of being issued an email my freshman year of college. And registering for classes online, can you imagine?? I still email a lot of people and it's how I prefer to get business done. That said, there are definitely people who I know don't "do" email so for them it's fb or whatever.
To me, the phone seems like the antiquated system of doing things - hey, can you drop whatever you're doing RIGHT NOW so I can talk to you for an unspecified length of time until I feel like getting around to the point?? - but it seems to still be going strong. Ugh, WHY??
Jason and I discovered a few years ago that the kids these days don't use email, when I started in YW and he started teaching Institute to the Brown undergrads. It's all texting. I have learned that if I want them to check an email, because I needed to send them actual information and not just snippets, I have to text them and tell them to check their email.
I still like emails. Texts and Twitter have their place, but a good long email is great.
I know that Blogger has no "like" option but I LIKE LIKE LIKE this post. :) Too much!
At least you had email. That wasn't even invented yet when I started at the Y. We had to rely on snail mail. And then I come home from my mission and am blown away with the whole email and internet thing....which kinda really took off those 18 months I was out of the country.
This makes me sad because I am hopelessly in love with email. Texts can't accommodate my loquaciousness :) One day I will tell my (still hypothetical) children that I existed before common people used the internet, and I'm sure they will stare at me in confusion and disbelief.
i just had a conversation on this topic with a few of my friends. facebook and texting are the primary means of communication. my email is a dumping grounds for all the stupid crap i signed up for. i rarely get an email from anyone i know. in a way, its sad, that our communications skills are dwindling to the point that its almost difficult to socialize outside texting.
I went to a professional conference that said email will eventually be antiquated in the workplace. Everything will look more like Facebook and be more collaborative. We'll be able to work through chat.
Kids these days also don't check their vm. You have to text them to do stuff.
I still use email, but I don't write the long winded emails I wrote in college. Then again, I had a lot more time then because it was before the cellphone, Facebook and Netflicks. :)
I just barely had this conversation with somebody about those dagnabbit youngsters and their refusal to have a proper email account. It drives me nuts, possibly because they expect me to constantly accessible, just because they (and all of their friends) are constantly accessible to one another. If I don't text/FB back within five minutes, I am presumed to be either dead or purposefully snubbing them. SO MUCH DRAMA.
I love email, but I also loved letter writing back in the day when using a pen didn't cause my hand to cramp up. I'm going to be sad if/when it disappears. WHAT ARE WE DOING TO THE WRITTEN WORD?! Bah, I'm off to read Fahrenheit 451.
Sometimes I feel like I'm in the technology sandwich generation. Some of the women I serve with in YW don't check email (or don't want to). They'd still rather do things via phone call or a standard (sometimes way too long) meeting.
Me? I love emails for stuff like that, but I've definitely fallen into the checking my FB a few times a day to see what's going on with people or sending messages that way. I text way, WAY more than I used to. It does take the human element out of things, but it's also so convenient when I'm on a deadline for work or it's late/early and I don't want to bug someone (too) much. We recently sent around a contact list in YW for the Laurels. None of them selected email. A few chose phone call, but the majority chose text as their contact method of choice. Go figure.
Lately, honestly, I email my missionary daughter because I can't call or text her, which I have really been tempted to do anyway!
Since I quit work, I rarely email. I usually start out texting and then call if the conversation gets long.
I always thought Sir Paul was saying "the ever-changing world in which we're livin' " but I do not have the same exposure to British men and their accents that you do, so I could be wrong.
Also, re: e-mail, etc.: WORD. Don't all these youngsters have smart phones with built-in e-mail? And they STILL would rather text? ISN'T IT PRACTICALLY THE SAME THING ON A SMART PHONE??? Does. Not. Compute!
I don't even blog much anymore. It all goes on Facebook so why write it out twice??
But on fb, I had to explain VHS to a friend of mine the other day. And then went looking for my walker as I was late to canasta.
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