Unbearably Instant
Published by Sylvia Giacinta July 16th, 2010 in sylv.thinking(); and the world. 2 CommentsJust some things to ponder about.
When I was in Jakarta, my littlest sister one day threw tantrums to her boyfriend because he had not replied her text messages for several hours. Or not @-replying her on Twitter. Whichever it was.
I was like, “Seriously, sis? Maybe he’s just busy doing something else?”. And my sister shot me a blank look, depicting something like “Even if he’s busy he should be able to reply me”.
Isn’t that the bane of today’s world? It’s unbearably instant (borrowing phrase from my friend Putu). Decades ago, lovers will send each other love letters and wait weeks, even months, for a reply. To even receive a reply is a lovely surprise.
Right now we have text messages, IMs, Twitter, and many other applications that claim to bring people closer together, but create attention-deficit impatient people instead. We don’t even send long e-mails anymore (except perhaps when your groupmate is acting really obnoxious. SMU joke – if you don’t get it never mind). When was the last time you sent an e-mail like a real mail? Something like how are you, how is it like at your place, what has been going on, and yadda yadda yadda. Never? I am not surprised. Too often the longest emails I received are from my aunt who just caught the e-mail forwarding virus (yes, in 2010!).
Do we not have enough time to stop and wait? Or are we expected NOT to have time? Because everything is unbearably instant…
Here’s a suggestion. You don’t even need to send a real hand-written letter via post (do people even know that postal service still exists?). Try sending long e-mails. Write to a friend. Tell him/her how you are doing, what have you been up to. Ask him/her about what he/she has been planning to do, or even about his/her quirky hobbies.
Send the e-mail.
And then wait for the reply.
Savour the time.
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i think you have just caught the jist of just what is wrong with he current generation.
The world is getting smaller. Not in the physical meaning, but figuratively speaking. Once we would take hours to compose a letter to our loved ones, carefully arranging tasteful bits of information that we would wish to share.
Nowadays, where getting information across continents would take mere moments, we end up just regurgitating rubbish, and just sending it over, without filters, without the actual process of composition.
Here is a fun quiz, just who still remembers the proper format to compose a letter?
I still remember! But I perhaps don’t really use it anymore. Perhaps the mailing system will be obsolete soon, but I think it’s really sad that the thoughtfulness will be gone too.