I'm starting to wonder if I want to keep this up. For the most part, my entries are pretty neutral, as I told Justin. To wit:
“I’ve been writing personal essays for about 35 years now. I’ve been doing Biblical research for about as long. With Ma being a Library Science major and an elementary school librarian, and Dad building an award winning library at Dike Elementary, I pretty much knew research and the Dewey Decimal System by the time I was 11 or 12. Research for various college papers was a snap for me. And one English professor at ISU finally let me write pretty much the same way I talked. Grammatically incorrect, using idioms, starting sentences with “And”. My blog entries are sometimes whimsical, sometimes a response to a Biblical question, and sometimes they’re just chronicling events in the literary form of a personal essay."
Don’t get me wrong – I do know grammar very well.
Malcolm Price Elementary Laboratory School, which I attended through 4th Grade and as noted by my sisters regarding 4th Grade memories, taught us to think and reason at a much younger age than most schools. That probably also had something to do with shaping both my writing and research skills.
I’m starting to question how communication in our society works and whether the current state of it is good. Technology is advancing at an incredible pace. For instance, my cell phone, purchased 5 months ago, was absolutely state of the art with its touch screen and access to various content (TV, movies, music) and relatively large screen. It’s now considered “last generation” technology. But it’s very good for text messaging – and the messages I compose actually use full words and punctuation. Why? IDK…
Even the pace of the spoken word has increased. In talking to my kids or my nieces & nephews, I often have to tell them to slow down. Not because I’m dumb, but because the twenty-somethings of the world have learned to communicate (speak and hear) at a much faster pace.
Twitter is something I don’t get. A micro-blog. Every 15 minutes or so, “Tweet something about what you’re doing, why, what your opinion is on just about any subject (i.e. “I don’t like over-cooked asparagus.”). Seems to be the object behind this technology that “we can’t live without”. My question is: Why? I’m living without it just fine.
Blogs are becoming the same thing. I know if someone has read mine when they leave a comment, which in general, like Twitter, is very short. If nobody leaves a comment, I just assume that a particular entry didn’t compel a reader to engage in conversation. Or just ignored it. No problem. Just like it probably doesn’t keep an author like Norah Roberts or Sue Grafton awake at night knowing that I haven’t read every one of their books.
Email is already going the same way of snail mail.
I’ve run into folks who, when I ask them to just send me an email, say, “Oh just check my blog.” Question: When did it become my responsibility to track down info and keep up with the information of others instead of them sending me the information they want me to know via email? Or snail mail for that matter. Geez – even our language is changing to accommodate this!
“Snail mail.”
“Blog – from weB LOG”
“Texting” (or worse, “sexting”)
“Google this…”
“IM me.”
“Tweet us at… “
It ain’t that long ago that my ramblings known as the Beemer Report were sent via the United States Postal Service, required a stamp, and you actually had to open an envelope and hold some paper while you read it. Your mailbox outside of your home actually contained something more than bills, solicitations and junk mail.
“Oh but we’re too busy for that these days.”
Then I’d say it’s about time to put on your boots and do something like sit on a precipice out in Rabbit Valley, watch the Dolores River roll by while enjoying some iced tea, and let a collared lizard sit on your boot and check you out. Been there, done that, and that lizard and I both knew the other wasn’t there to hurt the other.
I may just have to become an anachronism by reverting to just email and the USPS. Wouldn’t be a first. After all, it was less than two weeks ago that I shaved with a straight razor. Something I think only a few of my generation would know how to do, and even less of my sons’ generation.
But it still works. Just don’t try doing that and texting at the same time.
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I definitely do not get Twitter, hence you will never hear me say, "Check out my latest Tweet!" Not only is the purpose of Twitter ridiculous (What are you thinking/doing/feeling/saying/believing/etc. RIGHT THIS MOMENT?!) but the concept of reducing the aforementioned to a mere 140 characters is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAs for speaking quickly, yes, I do believe those of us in the Millennial generation do talk faster than those in the previous generations. I believe that, while this is partially due to the fact that we are forced to process an amazing amount of information from a large variety of sources, our quick speech is also a product of the cyclical nature of communication. Ever watch "Gone with the Wind"? Even I have trouble keeping up with the dialogue, as it is spoken incredibly quickly.
As for my blog, it serves several purposes. It is a way for those who are interested to keep up with my life without having to wait on me to get my act together to send an impersonal, infrequent email to my entire address book. My blog is also a sort of digital diary/journal for myself. As I have mentioned before, I have several blogs, all but one of which are completely private and viewable only by me. What is the purpose of this? It gives me access. It lets me jot down ideas and thoughts in multiple different locations without the concern of transferring whatever it was I wrote to a journal later. Also, it is more permanent than pen to paper. Paper gets lost. It is easily destroyed. Words become faded and hard to read. My electronic caches have none of these issues.
That being said, I love paper journals and own many. I almost always have pen and paper with me and will spend down time just writing down whatever comes to my mind.
I think, as with anything, what it all comes down to is balance. The "new" technology and forms of communication are not going anywhere and will only continue to evolve. One cannot be opposed to utilizing technology to communication simply because it is through these new channels the majority of information is being processed. One also cannot afford to completely abandon the old ways of communication. Letters sent via the Postal Service are even more meaningful today and a perfect living expression of our history and traditions.
As for your blog, well, that's up to you. You once told me, "You kids will know me through my writings." If this is true, then we need access to your writings, however you choose to present them.