My grandmother always talks to me about what her generation used to think of as communication. She mentioned face to face meetings, family dinners, and family reunions. Only after my prompting was she remembering phone calls and emails. Even then, it was merely a blip in her lifetime. She mentioned the thrill of receiving a handwritten note, and exchanging them with all of her friends. It was the main way to stay in touch. She lamented about losing touch with people because they moved away, and there was no way to know where they ended up.
Her stories started me thinking about my own life. When I was younger we had class pen-pals, where our entire class would send out letters and receive letters back from people in other countries. Eventually, as time got more valuable, and months went between letters, they stopped coming. I remember my parents saying that it is normal to lose track of someone. You get busy, they get busy, and people start to focus on the world directly around them.
That isn't really the case anymore. I can find someone I went to preschool with (in Indonesia) through a first name, a couple of common connections, and an Internet connection. It is easy to keep in touch with people from all walks of your life. I feel indebted to Facebook for allowing me to connect with people from my past. People I never thought I would ever see again. I can look and see what they are doing with their life, and feel comforted in the fact that though we rarely speak anymore, I would recognize them should I casually run into them.
All of the new forms of social media do have their uses. I like the ability to get in touch with a lot of people with just one click. To be able to share my life with my friends and my family. Ironically, this article will actually be posted on Facebook as a means of sharing. Communication has become a tool that revolves around devices that fit in our hand, a screen we hide behind, and a written bit we can send out in seconds. It worries me that my generation and the generations after mine will forget the weight of a hand written note, of picking up the phone and calling someone, of speaking face to face. We have a tremendous turning point ahead of us. The ability to either focus on personal connections, on developing the ability to communicate effectively, or the ability to further hide behind an impersonal screen.
Now is the time to choose to put your phone in the center of the table at dinner and make sure no one touches it. Now is the time to put your phone in your pocket while hanging out with people. Now is even the time to leave your phone at home, and forget about the rest of the world for a second. Now is the time to live in the moment, instead of in the world of likes.
