Busy work week, so not much daytime blogging, I’m afraid. Too bad, cuz I’m sure I would’ve had something to say about the VA Tech hoopla had I kept up on it.
Just don’t freak out to me about gun control. Every time some looney picks up a weapon, there’s a liberal somewhere that wants to bury all the guns in some abandoned mine shaft. That’s bullshit. Guns don’t kill people, etc.
Anyway, I already digress. What I really wanted to comment on was the ubiquity of electronic communication and how it might water down our interactions. I just shot an email off to a buddy who I haven’t seen in a while, and it was one of the longer messages I’ve written in the last several months. It had distinct points and everything. There were even a couple paragraphs with more than two sentences. We’re talking about a virtual ‘tome’ here.
What I ended up thinking as I sent that message out was: what’s more meaningful? Relationships, even a great distance apart, kept alive by a few random words day to day, or less frequent, more in-depth contact?
I have all sorts of people that I keep in pretty good touch with, but we don’t have to say much to maintain those relationships. There are others that I see or talk with less, but our contact is always positive, ending with regrets about not talking more often. Is one system superior to the other, or is this just the natural course of things? I suppose another way to frame the question is– what makes you feel better? Do you like that occasional warm-n-fuzzy you get from catching up with a friend, or do you prefer to know you’ve got people just a couple button-presses away (several times daily, if necessary)? I guess we probably all need a little of both.
I’ll have to think about it some more, but if you get a really long, thought-out message from me in the near future, you’ll know why.