Quote:
Originally posted by JugglingReferee
BITS, I agree quite a bit with what you said. However, an excellent book called Silicon Snake Oil (Clifford Stoll, also wrote The Cuckoo's Egg) claims that we're too technology dependant.
One of it's points was that nobody writes by hand anymore. It's too easy to use e-mail or send an IM. When my generation become grandparents, I think that many of us and our grandchildren will correspond by handwritten notes. How will we be remembered? Will our grandchildren re-read .txt files? Re-watch Quicktime movies? There's personality in writing. Sure video is good too, but with handwriting, you know that considerable time was invested, and that helps to develop the relationship.
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I remember years ago when I was in high school we watched a movie, based on a book, both called "Future Shock." Alvin Toffler, it seems, figured we'd all die or society would disintegrate or some such non-sense if we didn't slow the pace of change. Mr. Stoll may feel we're too dependent on technology today, but that won't change anything any more than Mr. Toffler's concerns did.
There are people I still send letters on paper to, although I very rarely handwrite them. I don't suppose that exchanging written letters will ever really disappear. I enjoy writing, I've even tried my hand at "being a writer." But writing is an inherently "one dimensional" means of communication. Aren't the grandparents always asking you to send pictures along next time?
Although we tend to value it, I suspect the rising generations will not attach the same appreciation for the considerable time it takes to hand-write a good letter. This is all, of course, my opinion
