It’s 3:30 in the morning and not only did cyberspace drain all my energy yesterday, it seems to still be working its magic. Have you ever had one of those days or weeks where the internet gods seem to be working against you? I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that important e-mails are being lost: some in my Outbox and some in other’s Inboxes. Did the mighty Spam raise his ugly head?
“I remember the old days” when communication meant sending a letter through the mail or picking up the telephone and getting a real person. Are any of you old enough to remember those days? No e-mail or fax: it would take at least 3 days before the other person got the letter and who knows how long before you got a response. I dream of those good old days when we had time to really read a letter, contemplate its contents and take our time to think about how to respond.
Or, if you made a phone call you either spoke to a real person or no one answered. None of this voicemail or push 1 or 2 stuff. It was direct and simple. And, because we hadn’t wasted our time trying to connect, we weren’t already frustrated when we actually spoke to a human. Instead we were ready and looked forward to real connection.
I often make fun of my husband for doing things the old fashioned way—actually walking into a bank, dropping papers off at businesses or talking to people in person. “What a waste of time”, I say, “when you could do it all online or by e-mail!” But after a day like today I wonder which method is the bigger waste of time—and—more importantly, who made the real connections.
Please be gentle with me tomorrow, internet, I can’t take much more….
