That'll do donkey, that'll do...

The simple fact that I found this tells me that I spend WAY too much time on the computer. This post will have to be referenced because I'll never admit it in public without proof.

It's almost sad...the more technology we find/create/purchase the less likely we are to have face to face conversations. The telephone made neighbors lazy enough to place a call. But it is nice to be able to talk to people who live far away. The fax machine allowed simple conversations to take place on a piece of paper. Information exchange really 'came of age' with the fax-even if it was on ridiculous paper that curled and turned black when it got hot. The pager came about-we could decide who/when to call people. Simple messages could be sent without the trouble of speaking a single word to the recipient. Then we got mobile phones and 'far away' became a matter of perspective for the caller. The personal computer came about the same time-widespread personal computer use, that is-and suddenly this whole 'world' of information became available...things could be saved, scanned and viewed later. Then, in 1997, the internet came around and personal productivity both increased and ceased at the same time...SMS services were in their infancy for widespread public use.

Flash forward twelve years...personal computers are everywhere...including countries where they simply struggle to eat. The PC market is changing from “one PC per household to one PC per person”. It's getting to the point where people prefer to interact with a lifeless box...whether that be a television or a computer...to find things, escape things, read things, write things (how's your handwriting these days?), share things and watch things. A little over a year ago, I bought what I consider to be a 'big ass' television...it was great at first but now, it's on at most once a week. My computer, on the other hand, is almost always on when I'm home...playing music, doing homework, chatting, updating something here or there...distracting myself with finding things like the picture in this post...and then creating a blog entry to talk about it. I call it 'infinite irony'. I miss the days of my youth when the only things I had to remember were my keys and my wallet. Now I have two iPods, a phone, a wallet, my keys and (usually) a camera.

Mobile phones are rapidly taking over the world of communication. I am one of many people who don't have a land line phone-cell phone only. Talking on a mobile phone is so...labor intensive and demanding...and it's giving way to SMS, which is now one of the primary forms of communication.

I'm 'old school'. I like to have at minimum a telephone conversation, if not a face to face conversation. I don't really like to use text messaging unless it's the only way to communicate at that given moment and what I have to say/ask can't wait. I know most of my friends are in opposition to this...let's face it, texting is easier and offers far more control as to when to answer, editing what you say, etc. but it's lacking in emotion, inflection and personality. Conversation is slowing dying out-forced to compact into text speak to meet the inability of the next two generations' inability to carry on an interactive conversation with another member of the human race.

Over 1 trillion text messages were sent in 2008. That's at least one billion conversations that didn't involve a voice. You'd think the world would be a quieter place.