I’m not one of those grumps who grouses and rants against modern technology, not at all. Actually, I get a perverse thrill from conquering new techno-challenges, a millennium twist on “beating the system.” There’s no doubt about it, this is the system, and it’s not going away. Rock on, Al Gore.

No, I’m IMing with the best of ‘em, attaching and CCing my little brains out (case in point: my proficient techno-verbing). I thoroughly enjoy email for its built-in get-to-the-point efficiency. We cut to the chase, yet engage in connection that often even leads to relationship, startling as that is. I have numerous connections with people I never see, but we’ve become e-close or at least friendly through email. Most of these people I’ve not even spoken with on the telephone. What for? And I was tempted to write “lol” following that question, another fascinating element of our telecommunications: our abbreviated signals for electronic conversational responses.

But as communication systems go, our emails and IMs, while speedy and efficient, still lack the essential face-to-face element so necessary for some of the subtleties of communication. Yes, I admit a message all in caps does feel harsh, and no, I can’t explain why. And some of those little face icons can make me laugh out loud, but I’m an easy laugher. But they still don’t come close to taking the place of the mano y mano assessment, of having the opportunity to eyeball the other’s person’s unspoken signals. People are so rarely completely direct verbally, or in this case textually, that I feel sometimes lost without the up-close and personal viewpoint of facial expressions and body language. But even this wailing is probably for naught, as I assume that very soon this complaint will be outdated, and webcams will be as omnipresent as cell phones. My challenge then will be more cosmetic, I fear. I guess it’s always something, sigh.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 7:32 am and is filed under Staff Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.