The way we talk

Following on from the last blog post entitled “The way we learn” I’m now going to talk about the way we communicate.

In the last blog post I mentioned that I learned various things from my friends and people I talk to via Twitter. But very often it’s hard to explain to someone just how to complete task or educate them on certain things when your posting via IM.

One of the things I really miss is actually writing an e-mail or a letter to someone in a way that takes care and attention. Imagine trying to actually walk someone through reinstalling a printer through IM when you could spend just as much time writing an e-mail.

In fact our reliance on IM somewhat distances ourselves from the people we love and care about. Indeed how many of you have spoken to friends or relatives more on IM than you have via e-mail or letter. There is a certain surprise, and love that you feel when you read a five page e-mail from someone as they recount their days and activities that you just don’t get when you’re chatting away through idle conversation.

Now, it is true we need IM services for real time communication, and yes It’s really nice to be able to talk to someone in real time but I for one miss e-mails. It occurred to me that I haven’t spoken to a dear friend of mine in a very long time. In fact I had become so used to the idea of Instant Messaging that I had forgotten I could write them a nice, long thoughtful email or do the same on Facebook. And whilst I’m sure they would be happy to hear from me, I’m equally sure they would feel just as or indeed more happy to receive something that they can read, enjoy and take time replying to.

Just as with another friend of mine I was speaking to a few nights ago via Skype. I was being instructed how to perform a task on Mac OS which was proving… difficult. And on reflection of the conversation, it would have been much easier if he had taken the time and care in writing an e-mail explaining everything.

So here we see how this links in to my last blog post about learning. I can certainly remember being helped by someone with homework via IM and completely missing the point because it was on IM, and therefore not as well thought out as in an e-mail. Similarly I have simply forgotten that I can write nice long messages to people I care about rather than wait for them to ‘come online’. But again on a whole different playing field, what on earth is to stop me just picking up the phone and talking to someone. I’ll leave that one to you.