Fewr letrs

I talked to a friend today who apologized for not responding to emails.  She said she hadn't checked her email for two weeks.  She said that she does more texting than emailing.  Aha!  So that's her main mode of communication.  I know from past experience that if I want to communicate with someone, it works better to use their favorite mode or channel of communication.  

There are many channels to choose from.  At one time, I guess nearly all communication was either by face-to-face voice or by making marks on paper.  I am pretty sure that we are currently evolved in such a way that being within speaking distance of someone has benefits and information for us, even has psychological and probably medical effects on us that no other mode has.  (I have read that older men have a tendency to not bother themselves with arranging face to face, social exchanges with others, a tendency that does them no good.)

These days, we have email, chat, voice phone calls, texting, fax, and (snail) mail.  Computers, whether desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablets or smartphones, can be used in addition to other machines and arrangements, such as 'landline' telephones.  Computers can be used for web-based communication in bulletin board arrangements, such as Facebook and Twitter.  It is increasingly possible that my handwritten letters delivered by the US Post Office will get put aside while I don't pay attention to my friend's text messages.  Even when one or both of us checks our modes of communications and becomes aware that the other person has sent us a message, we may have a tendency not to even open and pay attention to it when it comes by means of a seldom-used, disliked or confusing mode of communication.  

The unfavored mode problem is understood by businesses and others who want to communicate advertisements of their goods and services.If I send you emails but you mostly send and receive tweets, I will not be communicating with you effectively.  Maybe, we won't get any of each other's messages at all.  Until this morning, I had never sent a text message by phone.  I just learned that in general text messages are limited to 160 characters.  I have never been on the Twitter site and I withdrew from Facebook.  I have read that messages on Twitter must be limited to 140 characters and spaces.

I am a big fan of brevity, as long as it is not damaging or confusing.  I may try sending a version of this blog in short, text message form.  I am not against using texting shortcuts that allow for communication with fewer letters that usual English spelling.  I think of such writing as "license plate language", since individualized auto plates often allow only a few letters.  As I learn more about such methods, I may come to think of them as

w1nderful

and be

gr8tful

to have them.

--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety