Is Email Fading?
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I always hate it when I get a text right in the middle of posting a new Instagram picture. Would civilization just end already. I want to turn my truck into a Mad Max vehicle and start to feed on the weak and well-written. :
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Brutal opinions follow:
1. Actually, social media is fading. The cutting edge audience has bailed to chat apps. The even more cutting edge audience is going entirely offline for anything serious.
2. Email will remain vitally important as a means of conducting business and actual communications; for socializing, people are choosing social media or chat apps.
3. Many of us still write letters because there is no better way to deliver a personal or formal message. There is a large crossover between the anachronistic behaviors of pipe smoking, using fountain pens, and living outside the herd.
4. Yes, civilization is still failing. It's a long process (see Toynbee, Tainer, and Gibbon). But, it is also inevitable once society moves from a tacit agreement of purpose to an explicit, symbolic one, and culminates in caste revolt and democracy, which then move it into its final stages. But some always break away, and it seems our civilization is fighting back for its life, or at least the remnant of sane people are.
Cheer up. War is on the horizon, and death and chaos soon follow. But through fire comes transition (and not the Bruce Jenner kind). Merry Christmas!
1. Actually, social media is fading. The cutting edge audience has bailed to chat apps. The even more cutting edge audience is going entirely offline for anything serious.
2. Email will remain vitally important as a means of conducting business and actual communications; for socializing, people are choosing social media or chat apps.
3. Many of us still write letters because there is no better way to deliver a personal or formal message. There is a large crossover between the anachronistic behaviors of pipe smoking, using fountain pens, and living outside the herd.
4. Yes, civilization is still failing. It's a long process (see Toynbee, Tainer, and Gibbon). But, it is also inevitable once society moves from a tacit agreement of purpose to an explicit, symbolic one, and culminates in caste revolt and democracy, which then move it into its final stages. But some always break away, and it seems our civilization is fighting back for its life, or at least the remnant of sane people are.
Cheer up. War is on the horizon, and death and chaos soon follow. But through fire comes transition (and not the Bruce Jenner kind). Merry Christmas!
The question is: what is the percentage of the cutting edge audience in the whole mass? Social media is not fading, it is just transforming into something new every day. It was Myspace, then Facebook, then Instagram, then Snapchat...
The handwritten letters are dead, totally agree and few thousand years ago some probably were complaining about the hand carved stone letters dying. The most popular things are not the ones that are unique. Probably every teenager can sing a song of Justin Bieber nowadays, but how many even heard of If There Is Something by Roxy Music? That makes Roxy Music unique for us. Few days ago my wife sent me the pictures of the letters that I had been handwriting to her in 2010. Those letters are unique and thus still kept in a special place with a special care.
Totally agree with Deathmetal regarding the emails. They are mostly for the businesses right now. And believe it or not, there are still some companies out there who don't accept the email text as an official communication method (mostly the post-Soviet countries). In order to write an official letter to a company in Uzbekistan for instance, I have to type the letter on the computer, print and sign it, get it stamped and then send the recipient the scanned copy of it. Go figure out.
I have a very close friend who lives in Germany, we used to email each other every other day and I am talking about long emails. I remember once replying him with the longest text possible and adding the famous phrase to the end saying "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Now, we are chatting on an app. I don't have to worry anymore if he has received/read the email or when he is going to respond. Message sent: tick, message delivered: 2 ticks, message read: ticks become blue, here we go he types something, I can see that. It is that easy. Can you imagine the lovers in the middle age having this kind of technology? Would you trust bytes or pigeons?
Now, shake your head girl with your ponytail, takes me right back, when we were young.
I enjoyed reading your post jvnshr. It is still early for me here so my brain is only half awake, I got lost in thought contemplating "lovers in the middle ages." Suddenly, I notice 15 minutes has passed.
I still write letters using a fountain pen. Its only in the last few years I have fully adopted the envelope as folding the full skap letter paper on each side and then folding over, sealing with a paper tag and addressing was so much more convenient. I use email for business but I usually do all my letter writing on Sunday for some odd reason.
A nice touch. I might even be inspired to write and actual letter by hand one of these days.
In the meantime, happy Boxing Day! My fav. footie player, Harry Kane, has just shattered some records and his team lead 2-0 before the half.
In the meantime, happy Boxing Day! My fav. footie player, Harry Kane, has just shattered some records and his team lead 2-0 before the half.
Not for me. I receive between 300-500 business related emails daily. And those are not spam emails.
Seriously don't care about the "cutting"edge" when it comes to social media. By definition, they're mayflies.
Being bathed in the incessant chatter of millions of boring self celebrating dimwits and their dreary pinheaded families holds zero interest for me, so I spend no time on social media, except for special interest boards like this one. The aftereffect of "social media" is worth noticing, as everyone thinks they're a brilliant star when they're barely a wheat light.
A hand written letter beats the crap out of any other form of remote communication as it takes both time and commitment and it's personal. The rest are conveniences. Email is a wonderful convenience. Chat is...semi interesting. I'll take a phone call over chat.
Junk mail should be a capital offense.
Being bathed in the incessant chatter of millions of boring self celebrating dimwits and their dreary pinheaded families holds zero interest for me, so I spend no time on social media, except for special interest boards like this one. The aftereffect of "social media" is worth noticing, as everyone thinks they're a brilliant star when they're barely a wheat light.
A hand written letter beats the crap out of any other form of remote communication as it takes both time and commitment and it's personal. The rest are conveniences. Email is a wonderful convenience. Chat is...semi interesting. I'll take a phone call over chat.
Junk mail should be a capital offense.
I would agree that Email is now reserved for business and official documented form of communication. As for the Internet and technology in general it has made our society the smartest dumb people in the world. We have the ability to have any information at our finger tips, as long as you sift through the nonsense, yet we have lost the ability to retain the knowledge due to the lack of effort put forth to obtain it. The instant gratification has corrupted our minds and shortened our memory banks if you will. Funny how the access to such wonders has turned into a wonderful mess.
Wow, I just realized that I hadn't "written" a letter in perhaps 20 years. I've typed plenty into Word and emailed them, mostly dealinging my parents health care, insurance, VA, etc. But a hand-written letter, yikes.
And, none of them have a clue about what a 'wheat light' is... Must be some sort of LED... LOL...
Who is at fault when a child is not taught when a hand written note or letter is the only proper response? Hint: It is not the schools.
Who is at fault when a child leaves home without a love for the written word, bound in a tough cover, suitable for the night stand or the backpack. While I cherish and still purchase "dead tree" books, an e-reader is still the only way to take a library with you on a trip. So, I do believe there is a place for both if someone loves reading.
Times change and some of us here resist such. But, there are certain niceties in life which will fade away completely and no one will miss because they never knew of them.
Who is at fault when a child leaves home without a love for the written word, bound in a tough cover, suitable for the night stand or the backpack. While I cherish and still purchase "dead tree" books, an e-reader is still the only way to take a library with you on a trip. So, I do believe there is a place for both if someone loves reading.
Times change and some of us here resist such. But, there are certain niceties in life which will fade away completely and no one will miss because they never knew of them.
The rarity these days of a handwritten letter makes it all the more effective, especially with friends and family. It is something that can be tucked away and re-read many times, over years, long after the platforms that sustain the electronic memory have been negated by the corporate gods.
I love the detail in the Burns Civil War documentary about how most officers wrote letters home with the fancy new fountain pens and ink that faded over a few decades, whereas the farm boys and factory workers who had nothing but pencils as writing tools wrote letters that read clearly today. So new often isn't more permanent.
I've tried with a Kindle, but I feel more engaged with paper books, even when traveling.
I love the detail in the Burns Civil War documentary about how most officers wrote letters home with the fancy new fountain pens and ink that faded over a few decades, whereas the farm boys and factory workers who had nothing but pencils as writing tools wrote letters that read clearly today. So new often isn't more permanent.
I've tried with a Kindle, but I feel more engaged with paper books, even when traveling.
True.
And while they're at it, the parents should just teach their kids reading, writing and arithmetic at home and keep them out of the
The parents should then of course be able to opt out of the school taxes that they're being fleeced for and are just going down the drain.
All of the above just my opinion of course.
The Kindle and iPad shine when traveling with a dozen books and manuals. Where it loses its shine is leafing quickly back to an important passage or such. It's clumsy. But the ability to carry all of my camera manuals, a novel, tide tables, "The Photographer's Ephemeris", and two or three historical tomes in my pocket is invaluable. Between my iPad and the Kindle I've got enough reading material for a couple of months on the road. And, should I run low, I can download as many as I desire.
All that said, when sitting at home, in my chair, in the evening, a "dead tree" book is warmer and friendlier. Add a glass of port, the pipe, some "hillbilly" music and viola, a special evening indeed.
All that said, when sitting at home, in my chair, in the evening, a "dead tree" book is warmer and friendlier. Add a glass of port, the pipe, some "hillbilly" music and viola, a special evening indeed.
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