The other day I wrote about my new phone, but what I really wanted to talk about was how communication has changed. I continue to be amazed at the new developments in technology and how we use them.
I'm thinking about where I began with learning to write in fine script and moving forward slowly then quickly to Twitter. No, I don't tweet, but I followed someone who was during the Episcopal General Convention this summer. Fascinating to know what was happening moment by moment in a meeting across the country.
I found old letters from partner's great grandmother to a friend - hmm, late 1800s - very formal notes with no personality at all. Short.
Then longer letters, still handwritten, from my Dad during WW2.
Typewritten letters from my brother in the late 1950s.
Received a telegram from my boyfriend in 1964...delivered to my office via a machine that transcribed them...a teletype of sorts.
My first email in the early 1980s...in DOS.
IMing with Donna in 2000 or so.
The blog started in 2005 or 2006.
Skype - I can see and talk just like Dick Tracy.
Facebook - short messages, quotes, film at 11, comments, finding friends
Twitter - back to very short messages, cryptic, and some without personality.
The books I read seem to get longer and longer with more description and characterization. Or else they are only a few pages with lots of blank area.
Television commercials once meant holding an image for at least 3 seconds, 90 words in 30 seconds. Now, I can hardly follow the images at all - and I'm sure some of them are there for miliseconds - subliminally creating an attitude inside me.
My mind was trained before television, and I find it difficult to deal with short sound bytes - I want the whole story including context. But the context is global, and difficult to comprehend the cultural, economic, social, political effects that are the whole story.
Still, I am interested in what comes next. Artificial intelligence is amazing. I look forward to it.
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4 comments:
It really is amazing how our modes of communication have changed in a really short time. In terms of telecommunication, I can remember using a crank telephone while in college and I am now on my third cell phone.
Isn't artificial intelligence what the loud Republicans, Fox "News" and their ilk create?
that reminds me i have some birthday cards and a couple thank you notes to send....
and @PseudoPiskie, I have just snorted masala chai, thank you for the Laugh of Appreciation for your insight <^;
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