Letters

I decided to write to Grandma Millie and my cousin Chad for this assignment. Can you guess what form of mail I used for these two? I used pen and paper as well as an envelope to voice my gratitude and thanks to my grandma for being so great all these years. I used Blackberry Messenger to let my cousin know he has been a great mentor. I know this isn’t email, but he does all of his emails on his phone, and they show up in the same place so I thought it was similar enough. These messages, as you might guess, were a little different in tone, length, and language.
The letter I wrote to my grandma had the heading “Dear Grandma Millie,” and ended with “Love, Daniel”. I used my best penmanship and crafted each sentence thoughtfully before finalizing them with writing. The letter made no mention of a class project, but explained my appreciation and thanks alone. I ended the body of my message hoping that all is well and stating that next time I’m home that I will be sure to stop by. When I finished the letter I reviewed it to make sure I didn’t spell anything wrong. I sent her the letter five days ago and have not gotten a response back yet.
The message I sent to my 27 year old cousin began with “Hey shithead, how’ve you been?” and ended with “Try to get back to me by Sunday. I have to write a paper about your response”. The majority of the message was heartfelt, but a lot less formal than the one I sent my grandma. I put little thought into the conversation, and typed out the message quickly. Chad messaged me back two hours after the email was sent. He responded with thanks, reassurance that I can continue to come to him for advice, and gloated in the fact that I was doing homework while he was doing much cooler activities.
Wood & Smith explain that although people have different opinions about whether the internet is impersonal, interpersonal, or hyperpersonal for communicating what really matters are one’s perception of the experience. I was having trouble relating this project to the book until I found that idea. My opinion is that the internet is an impersonal use of communication. Because my cousin knows me well he does not need to see the nonverbal cues to understand that when I call him a shithead I am just being playful. My tone and language in my grandma’s letter were more conservative because I did not want to distort her perception due to the lack of nonverbal cues. Because I see text based communicating as impersonal I am dependent on the receiver’s real perceptions of me.
Snail mail is special. The messages are tangible, and represent time and effort. Time and effort are two things Americans try to minimize. Many technologies succeed because of the ability to help Americans save time or minimize efforts. The internet has capitalized on saving people time, and allowing them to exert less energy. Writing to my grandma was a much larger task; I had to find an envelope, find a stamp, get her address from my parents, try not to misspell, and figure out if we had a mailbox. The process was time consuming and was more of an endeavor. Because of the energy put forth the message was much more special, and much more meaningful. I wonder if email, along with various other factors of the internet, has the power to devalue relationships period. We are moving in the direction of an increasingly connected World, and I hope that we are able to hang on to the time consuming effortful tasks that make life special.