Times has really changed.
Gone were the days when people write letters to each other and mail them through the post office.
I remember during my elementary days, I joined a group IYS – International Youth Service. Upon joining, you get to receive letters from youths all over the world. I don’t know how they matched the youths at that time. I get to befriend people from Finland, Greece and other parts of the world. We exchanged letters, gifts and pictures. You get to know their likes and dislikes, their family members, their life in the place they lived in.
I remember one in particular, Maarit Teglesten. She is from Finland. We have been writing to each other for almost five years. She introduced her family to me.
But eventually, technology has stepped in.
It started with those keypad cellphones. Where in you just texted to each other. And to make the words short, as there is a limit to the number of words, the vowels were skipped. It is where people start to not minding the correct spelling of words. As long as it can be read between letters, it is deemed okay.
Then keypad cellphones became touchscreens or smart phones. The more that we are way off from where we were. With the touchscreens comes the digital camera. The use of a device that records visual images thru photographs have minimized. Usually, only those professional photographers used the camera nowadays.
People used their smartphones to capture an image and save it digitally. The photographs in prints have lessened. I remember the section for picture developing in one of the department store where I usually have my captured pictures printed has closed because less and less people have their pictures printed.
But then, there are also a lot of advantages the modern technology has offered.
Facebook for one is a positive output of modern technology. I remembered my friend from Finland and tried to search her in Facebook. Her name was nowhere to be found but I saw her brother’s name instead. I tried to message her brother and indeed he remembered me as being her sister’s friend from the Philippines. He gave me Maarit’s email address. I emailed her right away but sad to say she has not replied. But anyways, I get to know that she is doing well thru her brother.
Another advantage of Facebook is that you get to reconnect with your high school classmates whom you parted ways after graduation.
But for me, having a seaman as a husband makes this modern technology so very advantageous. I experienced before, during our early years of marriage, we really have difficulty in communicating with each other. He calls me through a landline phone only when they can dock and so far in between. Now, with the use of modern technology, we were able to talk almost every day. I can also search online the whereabouts of his vessel if he is unable to call me.
Though written communication, which can improve our writing skills, has diminished, platform like read.cash can easily replace that. Writing own words and putting thoughts in these blank pages has been a very healthy exercise for the brain.
Happy writing!
