The fast and growing use of email have a great influence on our society. Globally people tend to turn on their computer to check if they have messages. Most of those times are during their free time when they have access to the computer. It is amazing how people are attracted to the metaphor of email rather than picking up a phone and have an ordinary conversation.
Few years I am not familiar with this world of electronic messaging. It started out when I was back to school and do some on line registration. That's it after that, did not even bother to check my e-mail and has no interest with it. One time my aunt call me asking if I have any Friendster account. So she encouraged me to open one. Right after I opened an account, I am receiving messages from our friend and relatives back home. I got so excited hearing from those people whom I did not get in touch with for so many years. And what sounds more interesting, it is free... That is a great deal I should say. I will not have a pile of telephone bill with long minutes of expensive talking just to get in touch with these people.
It is also very convinient for me to communicate via email because some of the friends and family that I missess the most lives internationally. We do not have the same time of availability because of time difference. So I can just leave my message any time and the recepient can reply whenever they want to. No pressureat all. Another thing that got me hooked about email is you can add attachments like important documents and pictures. I love seeing this digital pictures of my old acquiantances. This is just the perfect answer for all my curiosity. How are they doing and how do they look after all those years? It also saves a trip to the post office and postage. Could you imagine how long is that line in the post office just to send a document? Plus on top of that they will charge you that much of amount to deliver the mail overnight. With all these hassles it will be much easier for me just to scan and email it. It will not even take hours for them to receive it. Contrary to all those good things about email communications you still feel isolated and there is a space in between.
Although email just fits my lifestyle it is still different how we converse offline. When I talked with my family, I like to hear the giggles, excitement and emotions. E-mail communications are limited to what and how people feel. We missed that facial expression of happines and sadness. And I think that is a great factor on people social interaction. When we converse we can interact right away at that moment and can solve the puzzles that lingers in our mind. It does not leave any doubts and questions. We do not have to turn on the computer and wait for the answer.
Email and ordinary conversation have a lot of differences. It is helpful to some others that fits their lifetsyle and need. Both of them is a medium of communication that bridge social interaction.
Wow Adjie,
ReplyDeleteIt’s really great that you can feel a little closer to your friends and family through email. I remember one of your other posts where you described what it was like to be alone in a foreign culture, and away from your family. I get the same feeling of excitement when my son posts photos, or even messages to his friends in Japanese on Twitter. It’s cool because Twitter will translate his Japanese messages, and sometimes the translation is very funny. I tend to neglect my email. I think it’s because I have been using online communication for so long it has become somewhat dull.
I met my late husband on a dial-up bulletin board service in the early 1990’s. I loved his personality online, but you are right, it doesn’t compare to talking to someone on the phone or in person. I can honestly say the first time I talked to him on the phone I was fairly certain he was the man I was going to marry. He was in Minnesota and I was here in California, so online communication played a big role in us getting to know each other before we met in person. There weren’t many cell phones around at that time and calling long distance became expensive very quickly. When I finally did meet him it was a very strange feeling. I had heard his voice a lot, and had seen pictures of him, but it was nothing like meeting him in person. I recognized his voice immediately, but it took a while to put the voice with the face, and gestures.
I have a similar situation with my son living in Japan. We do call each other on the phone from time to time, but more often we chat on skype, Twitter, or through email. Postage to foreign countries is very expensive. I’m glad there are alternatives that allow us to stay in touch.