You can definitely tell we are in the electronic age. I was just asked to look up a phone number, and I, being the resourceful intelligent person that I am ;), immediately pulled up my internet browser and headed straight for Yellow Pages, the company website and a couple other places before I REALLY started using my head. Yeah, that’s right, I pulled out the ol’ phone book and looked in the white pages.
And found the number in about half the time it took me to search around the so-called efficient internet. I really think there are too many options and answers and sites who say they have the answers and just too much available in general via electronic means. Sometimes, like today, it’s almost impossible to find the information you are searching for due to the sheer volume of results any search engine pulls up. Sometimes we just need to get back to basics—we might just save a little time, which is the whole point of something like the internet.
It really took me aback a little when I thought about it. How many times have we all gotten an email about an event or a link or some new problem that we should all be informed of, only to receive a second email cancelling the first, or correcting the first, or saying to disregard the first? And all of this misinformation might be avoided if we didn’t send information so fast, and had to reflect a bit on what we were sending before it actually left our hands.
Relationships have turned into electronic ones. Our grandparents often have collections of letters sent over a period of years, that are incredibly special to read many years later. Today we have texts and emails and they are most often deleted after a certain number of days to make room for new ones. The romance is deleted, instead of saved and treasured years later. Will our children thank us for that? Or will they even notice since they are completely growing up in this electronic age?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a big fan of speeding up communication. It’s amazing that we can communicate an idea within seconds instead of days. It’s amazing that we have webcams that allow us to “see” people overseas when unreliable mail was all that was available before. But at what cost?
I guess I’m just saying that sometimes I think it would be better if we slowed down, even if just a little and really thought about things instead of just reacting and shooting off an email or text or, as in my case, pulling up the internet for a goose chase instead of just finding the information the old-fashioned way. Sometimes slower is better. And sometimes I think we need to be reminded of that.
What do you think? Is slower better or do the benefits of the electronic modes of communication outweigh any sacrifices?
1 comment:
I have to agree that sometimes slower is better/easier....another thing about the texting,etc. is that people are getting to where they can't talk to each other face to face....it's so much more impersonal to text or e mail instead of conversing face to face, or even by the telephone. Those old letters that people save and look at fondly years later are becoming a thing of the past. too bad.
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