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.

On the subject of learning, it amazes me the way in which we find our information. Ten years ago we didn’t really have the internet, and almost certainly had to rely on our friends, colleagues or books from the library. Now of course with the internet we have a plethora of information at our eager little fingertips. I often wonder how many people out there in the real world could attribute most of their success and knowledge to the internet. I know I could.

Let me give you an example for you to get your teeth into. Using computers, and working with them on a day to day basis, I need to be able to perform tasks that are… shall we say ‘beyond the needs of regular users’? An example of which would be, Internet Explorer not working properly. I would know to look in the System32 folder for various drivers that might affect internet explorer (printers for example) and indeed the Application Data folder.

That of course, is information I learned from the internet. In fact most of my computing knowledge is found from the internet. In contrast I’m often asked “How do you know so much about computers?” when the reality is, that I know because I have to know. When an application breaks, I refuse to ring a premium rate telephone number to get a resolution and nor do I wish to subject myself to the infernal and ultimately fruitless task of reading manuals. So if Windows has a problem, I Google it, and often find a suitable resolution in half the time.

Such is the case with Mac OS. Having only just got it, I know nothing about it, however after experiencing a problem with Tweetdeck and indeed Googling the resolution, I now know that application settings are in the Library folder, and in the root library folder.

Ok so it’s more information than you probably need or want to know, but without the internet, and what my friends tell me, I wouldn’t be in the same position. Similarly it answers the question, how do I know so much about computers. Simple, because I have to.