I recently read a story where a teacher from the year 1900 gave her students drawing supplies and told them to draw about growing up in a coal mining camp. When the teacher got the pictures back there were drawings ranging from one little girl learning how to make oat bread from her mother; to a boy who, at younger then ten, was already working in the mine sorting rocks out of coal when he wasn't in school.
As I read that story I heartbroken that there was no good way for those precious drawings to be duplicated so that they would have a better chance of surviving.
It made me realize how much I've come to rely on things like digital cameras that even dumb phones have now. With digital cameras we can take snap shots of whatever we want and, with almost no effort, scatter the places that picture is stored until there are so many duplicates of that picture that it has a much better chance of surviving.
In a way, the ease we have in duplicating pictures is a good thing. I wonder how valuable those precious pictures drawn by children in a mining camp would be if they had been easily duplicated. Looking at them now they would still have value as a unique insight into history.
Still, I sometimes wonder if we sacrifice worth, uniqueness, for security of that picture being so easily replicated? So easily replaced?
I'm still not sure.
On another completely unrelated note. Did you know that only 7% of conversation is verbal? The other 93% is non-verbal. I found this very gratifying because I prefer talking to people in person. Yes, texting is a lot less intimidating. But, when I'm face-to-face with someone I can look for those non-verbal cues that tell me wether what I said was understood in away words alone wouldn't be able to.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you write a text and read through it before sending it that it could be taken the wrong way? And then of you try and reword it so the text won't be taken the wrong way. But this new text could also be taken the wrong way. Eventually you give up on trying to fix it and you send it. Hoping, that the person receiving it will understand what you meant.
I do believe that something in conversation is lost when you don't talk face-to-face. But, I also think there are really good uses for the digital ways we have of communicating now.
For example: Skype. My family live three states away from Utah. Skype isn't quite the same as seeing them in person it's glitchy and sometimes it freezes. But I still get to see them. Which is really great.
So, digital communication has it's uses, but don't forget the worth of talking face-to-face.
I think that text and other forms of media are making it difficult for people to meet and talk in person. It's so much easier, like you mentioned, to send a text, but you worry if the meaning will be taken wrong. It's difficult to say how a text will be taking when you can't read non-verbal ques. This can definitely cause problems with texting, but it can be useful to text in order to get a quick message across when you're in a hurry.
ReplyDeleteI always worry about my kids not being able to have conversations in person. I was lucky to grow up in a time where I had half the technology we have now so I still developed the ability to have face to face conversations. I see a lot of kids in the generation younger than me that can't.
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