Hello fellow bloggers,
Mrs Doctor Who has declared that she has grown some brain cells as a direct result of her literature studies. Could this be quantified? How many brain cells? What was there before? Is there a direct correlation between growth of said cells and Pride and Prejudice? Hmmm... much to ponder.
Even more interesting to ponder, and I'd like your thoughts on this, is the way we all communicate with each other. Regularly, there will be an article in the papers or magazines, lamenting that people no longer write letters - really write, pen to paper. JC still does, but I fear I'm in the minority.
What are the pros and cons of letter writing? Why do people not write letters any more? How do we relay important information? What forms of communication do you use? Do you choose different forms for different purposes? What form of communication do you use to sympathise with a friend if you have heard bad news; to let a friend know of a change in plans; to exchange casual news about your holidays; to let someone know they have offended or hurt you? How did the characters in P+P communicate news?
There are a couple of very well known letters in the novel, but I think you'd be surprised at how many letters there are!
Over to you for your thoughts. Frosty, what will we do without Little Dorritt in our lives? Jonathan Creek is back on ABC at 8:30 tonight - for those of you who have never watched this wonderful crime show , it's worth a look. It's funny, quirky, puzzling, and the mystery is intricately woven.
JC
Hello my literature family!
ReplyDeleteYessss! Mrs Doctor Who is certainly right and I too have grown brain cells that I don’t believe I had before. But in questioning what WAS there before the pondering begins to strain those newly formed brain cells so I will leave it to rest.
The way we communicate with each other is a fascinating part of the 21st century and the technology advancements that accompany it. I, like you JC fear you are in the minority as well. Admittedly I am one of those people still thrilled at the idea of receiving mail in the letterbox but myself don’t sit down to write to others very often. I do however, write to myself. . . Yes, letters to self are part of the way I evaluate how far I have come, where I was compared to where I am and more importantly where I WANTED to be as compare to where I am. They remind me that goals are no good if you don’t plan on seeing them through and no improvement will come from doing nothing…
(Also good for a chuckle in regards to terrible hand writing and laughing at the many things that used to consume my life that now seem trivial.)
Alright here are my answers to some of your questions:
-It is simple people no longer write letters because there are sooo many other, less time consuming ways of doing so.
-Well , in terms of important , it’s a tough one because as much as I prefer face to face, it may also be ‘important’ ( in my eyes) to text my best friend the minute the boy I like talks to me because as ‘important’ as it is I just cant wait! ( haha just kidding guys it’s a fake scenario , but you know what I mean! Some gossip just can’t wait!)
-I am a user of; the old school home phone , email ( at school e messages) , mobile phones annnnnd admittedly I am an ex user of msn and myspace turned addict of facebook ( on this I know I’m not alone! Haha )
-Yes I use different forms for different things , for family members I use the home phone , for small things I use my mobile , for school work I use email , it all depends.
-For sympathy I am a face to face person, a card and some flowers for my condolences, if they are far away a phone call will suffice.
-Change of plans, a text , if really late notice a phone call through the fear of them turning up without me there!
-Casual news about holidays? Facebook for sure , at least then you can tell people at once without repeating yourself ( and wasting credit)
-When it comes to hurt or offence I confront the person, words can not always articulate tone which is vital!
Welll , someone has to go first ,
so there you go ladies! I look forward to seeing our similarities and differences.
JR
PS- Isn't it interesting disscussing the ways we communicate through our online classroom! HA
An experience Austens time deffinitly missed out on!
Yes. Well that was a crazy long post from lemma. Fantastic however!!!
ReplyDeleteImagine if all the phone and computers and the like didn’t exist!!
What if we were meeting with a friend and had to call it off as we were sick. We’d have to write a letter and wait for a postman to bring it to them. Imagine that. I imagine several days would pass before that person would receive that letter. And then be fairly annoyed that they'd been waiting at the beach for 5 days and been attacked numerous times by seagulls and once a small vicious snail. O: and by the time they got given the letter no doubt you'd be on the road to recovery.
Imagine. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god I just ate three cheeseburgers and five 50c cones! Such an ACCOMPLISHMENT (there’s that magic word again)." but you can't text this to your also food obsessed friend who shares your passion for eating lots of food. Instead you must write a letter or send smoke signals and by the time you have done that you;
a) Will have gotten hungry mid letter/signal and given up and gone to eat more food :)
B) Suffered severe smoke inhalation and are wondering whether or not telling your friend is worth it (which would be terrible as I find receiving peoples impulsive messages to be delightful and I’d rather they didn't die in writing them.)
b) The letter caught fire from the low tech candle you had to use to light the room whilst you wrote the letter... which then got burnt anyway and never sent.
c) Your fire for smoke signals went out of control and your friend who was a fireman can to put it out after half the town caught fire and this has defeated the purpose of the smoke signals as your friend is now their in person and you can tell them about the cheeseburgers and 50c cones.
*don’t try smoke signals in mc Donald’s, I doubt they’d appreciate it
Anyway see! Thank god we have our phones. Imagine the effort of having to write a letter, send a smoke signal. Imagine the trouble. Its way to time consuming to have to write letters and inconvenient to the life styles we lead today. however having said this I think I will write someone a letter just to see if I get a reply via text or letter in return...
Yes I shall. I will.
But yes thank god I’m not living in the 1800s. :O :O though I do like the look of pemberly. I should like to live there.
byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee guys.
*by lemma i mean Jemma 0: oopps
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, literature has somehow been extremely beneficial for me, especially in the past two weeks I might add. I think one of the things I have learned about literature is that you get out of it what you put in; surprisingly life in general is a lot like this in, I’m sure, more aspects than just one. However, that’s a completely different discussion
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing better than that warm feeling of receiving a letter from someone, I write manually to my cousin who lives in Queensland, and also my cousin who lives in Uganda as there is no internet connection there, and mobile phones are fickle and really not worth the effort. And like Jemma, I also write to myself, however not in letters in more of a journal format, I write how I am feeling, about my situation, ask questions, I write about what I love…
But I would think that the main reason for computer communication is the trusty “spell check”.
Text messages, I must completely agree with Jemma, short notice, text is the way to go.
Face to Face communication is priceless. So many things can be misunderstood when they are written down, why risk it, to be sure, just tell someone to their face. Sarcasm is one of things that I find difficult to express over facey, I find that I am constantly being asked “are you being sarcastic?” or “that’s sarcasm, right?”
Communication is an ever changing, and if I was to be completely honest with myself, I would say that I do not like facebook all that much. In some cases too much communication can be dangerous, when I am going through friend trouble, my mum suggests that I stay away from social networking on the internet for a while and surprisingly, it always helps. Why is that?
As much as people tend to suggest otherwise, facebook is a choice; you can choose to get caught up in the wide world of web or to read a real book.
elisha
sorry, i had a little trouble posting, by the time i did, Mrs Doctor Who had already posted, therefore there is no reference to her comment in my post...
ReplyDeleteDo you think people were more circumspect with what they communicated - in the past - because the methods dictated the content? For example, if your best friend was holidaying for 6 weeks in Queensland, and your only way of staying in touch was by letter ( let's imagine you're a school girl in 1930), and you wanted to keep in contact over the holidays. Perhaps you woudl write to each other once a week. So, perhaps, you wouldn't put in every detail that youwould include today - you'd have writer's cramp pretty quickly!
ReplyDeleteImagine also, how you would maintain a relationship - if you and your boyfriend wrote letters or visited, and that was the only way of communicating with each other, and arranging dates!
Thanks so much - Mrs Doctor Who, good advice about not sending smoke signals from a fast food outlet. That is definitely the handy hint for the day.
JC
Okay, I'm finally on here! Only took 3 terms for my google account to be accepted -.- So here goes, I’m going to try and catch up on my comments as much as I can! I love everyone's responses! It's so interesting to hear everybody's thoughts on this topic. So interesting. Okay, so here are my thoughts:
ReplyDeleteThe pros of letter writing are that it is an intimate way of communicating, I love the excitement I feel when I receive a letter in the mail, only to find out it's my phone bill :( The cons are how slow it is, it really is 'snail mail'. I think this is one of the main reasons people don't write letters any more, also issue of time is a big factor, it's quite time consuming to sit down and write a letter, also, if you're like me, I hate having a messy page and being able to write a text or e-mail is the way to go for me because there is the handy 'backspace' button :) I guess the way we relay important information depends on who we need to speak with, I certainly wouldn't text my boss telling him I couldn't come in, a phone call seems appropriate. However, a text to a friend saying you may be late to catching up is okay, especially for short notice. The most common forms of communication I use would be texting, because of how easy and quick it is, phone calls – direct answers are always good. The format in which we communicate definitely depends on the situation, for example, communicating with a friend to sympathise with would definitely be a phone call or preferably a face to face meeting. But asides from all of that, I'm just excited I'm FINALLY on here!!!!! YAAAAY!! now I can not only read posts, but COMMENT :D:D:D:D