So Here’s the Thing I Don’t Understand.
I was counting up the many different ways we have of communicating. There are emails, letters, phone calls, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Google meet and FaceTime. There are probably others that the next couple of generations beneath me use frequently and to great effect.
Our sense of connectedness and our understanding of each other should therefore, in this day and age, be at its zenith.
But here’s the thing. In the age where we communicate on the screen, we seem just as distant and isolated as ever. Why is that? The screen can be effective to signal and point to things, and in some cases where the distances are exorbitant, it’s all we’ve got, but ... it does not and cannot ever replace face-to-face conversation in the same room. Those who are clever at these things will tell me that in those cases where we actually really converse with someone under the same roof, we actually reveal more to each other by what we don’t say, as we do with the words that pass from our lips. The screen can seem ‘cold’ and impersonal. We should have woken up to this by now, but it seems that we are well and truly addicted to the convenience and speed of the screen. There does not seem to be any going back or desire to go back.
Part of the way forward, then, is to send pictures, images and those cute little emoji things. A picture really does send a very clear message, especially the photo of a loved one(s).
Or maybe… we could just put a line through the diary, make a time and a place, grab a cuppa and do it the old-fashioned way; face to face with silence, words and a smile.