Keeping In Touch
The first thing ever that I received in the post was a postcard with a picture of a monkey on it. It came from my Grandpa, in Barrow-in-Furness. I was thrilled - I still remember that feeling of that card mysteriously appearing through the letter-box, from Grandpa, just for me, and I can still visualise the picture.
Small children know more than we think. Grandpa died when I was eighteen months old.
As a kind of tribute to him, I started sending postcards as a child and I still send lots to friends and relatives - they are a good way of saying "hey, I'm thinking of you" often because I'm in countryside or seaside that I think you might like.
When I was younger, I sent lots of letters too. Now I don't send many, because of email, though I still send letters to people - mostly older people - who don't have email.
Lots of people say it's a shame that we don't send handwritten letters so much - and in a way it is: I only have to look at one of Amy's beautifully written and illustrated letters from Barrow to understand that.
But, in general, I think the advent of email and phones means that we can keep in much better touch these days - and I do.
This week I've been looking at photos emailed to me from an old friend in New Zealand, who lived in England in the seventies, and is planning a trip to Europe next summer - she last came over a couple of years ago and it was great to see her. So now we send each other photos by email - such a difference from just a few years ago when you had to choose extra copies of photos, and wait a week for them to arrive at the chemist's, and then put them in the post, and then they took days to get there, if they didn't get lost on the way.
This morning I was talking on the phone to an old friend, whom I've known since Emily was a baby, in Holland. Late last night I was talking on Skype to a new friend - who already feels like an old friend, in the best way - in America. And last night, at Carry's party (thank you Carry) a mixture of old and new friends (thank you) kindly looked after me when I suddenly came over all sad about my cousin's cancer diagnosis earlier this week.
And then there are the people I've never met whose blogs I read, and it's great to know about their lives too.
It's great to see friends face to face. But when that's not possible, hurrah for t'interclacker and telephones and modern technology of all kinds. They have opened up possibilities for making new friendships and keeping in touch with old friends in a way that was simply unheard of less than half a century ago.
Small children know more than we think. Grandpa died when I was eighteen months old.
As a kind of tribute to him, I started sending postcards as a child and I still send lots to friends and relatives - they are a good way of saying "hey, I'm thinking of you" often because I'm in countryside or seaside that I think you might like.
When I was younger, I sent lots of letters too. Now I don't send many, because of email, though I still send letters to people - mostly older people - who don't have email.
Lots of people say it's a shame that we don't send handwritten letters so much - and in a way it is: I only have to look at one of Amy's beautifully written and illustrated letters from Barrow to understand that.
But, in general, I think the advent of email and phones means that we can keep in much better touch these days - and I do.
This week I've been looking at photos emailed to me from an old friend in New Zealand, who lived in England in the seventies, and is planning a trip to Europe next summer - she last came over a couple of years ago and it was great to see her. So now we send each other photos by email - such a difference from just a few years ago when you had to choose extra copies of photos, and wait a week for them to arrive at the chemist's, and then put them in the post, and then they took days to get there, if they didn't get lost on the way.
This morning I was talking on the phone to an old friend, whom I've known since Emily was a baby, in Holland. Late last night I was talking on Skype to a new friend - who already feels like an old friend, in the best way - in America. And last night, at Carry's party (thank you Carry) a mixture of old and new friends (thank you) kindly looked after me when I suddenly came over all sad about my cousin's cancer diagnosis earlier this week.
And then there are the people I've never met whose blogs I read, and it's great to know about their lives too.
It's great to see friends face to face. But when that's not possible, hurrah for t'interclacker and telephones and modern technology of all kinds. They have opened up possibilities for making new friendships and keeping in touch with old friends in a way that was simply unheard of less than half a century ago.
posted by Daphne at 2:11 pm
2 Comments:
I also miss letter writing. I remember the pre-email days when I used to write long, long letters, especially when I was living in Japan. I'd buy this wafer thin airmail paper and easily write a 10-page letter to my folks (I had an exciting life back then with stuff to talk about!)
But yeh, the digital online age opens up many new possibilities and it's much easier to keep in touch. That said, I don't think it always makes me a better communicator. I still have friends I don't speak to often enough though we have Facebook, email, skype, txt, etc.
I still remember getting my first email account as a student starting uni in 1994. It was SO novel, I couldn't believe you could type this thing out and it could reach the other side of the world and at no cost. Seems a lifetime ago...
I remember checking my email once a day and always being surprised if there was any. Now I check it every ten minutes and I'm disappointed if nothing's arrived.
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