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Apr 28, 2004 “In each century since the beginning of the world wonderful things have been discovered. In the last century more amazing things were found out than in any century before. In this new century hundreds of things still more astounding will be brought to light. At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done – then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.” Francis Hodgson Burnett, “The Secret Garden”; (1911) 1069 the mood had been deflowered. Just after my birthday! Now this has not as much to do with me, my brother is a couple of years my senior – as far I can believe our birth certificates… But even to fly to moon is often considered as The Go-ahead event. The moon has not been shot down. The gods are really grateful for that. Not long after this, I had just looked forward to my third birthday, which had been in the lovely world within the Berlin Wall; 1971/1972 it had been, as the world has been given another special present: The first E-Mail had “raced” through a couple of pipes and wires in the United States of America. Gosh! But who had known what it is – an E-Mail? I do not know, how it had been in other countries, maybe United States itself, the – womb might be extremely a bit – birthplace of E-Mail. But the world within the Iron Curtain turned around at a more leisurely pace than other places. So the knowledge about computer at all, and E-Mail in particular, were not even spread out all over German households. But as silent as the time went on in the 80s, sophisticated equipment crept into our live as well. I grew up slowly, slower than other people. This had always been a bad point of my character. I had always been the last, the foolishiest of all. My school mates hated me for that, I had hated it. Thus what should I have done with a rushing thing like an E-Mail? I had not it grown out. My slowness. Now I am getting not as quick as other people older. I love it. I have worked with E-Mail for four years. Just right to say I have learned it previous century! And I was just in time to experience, how E-Mails displaced the common telegram. Telegrams are not offered by German post service any more. But in competition with E-Mails they invented a service for sending flowers or chocolate. Might not be a serious competition. Is not very hard to picture a rose might stuck on-line or a bar of chocolate tapes up the wires… Now people are sitting at home and they are able to sent their urgent messages themselves. As much as the amount of division of labour is shrinking the isolation and unsociability is rising. Mind your daily chat with a nice clerk at the post office or your annoyance about a rude one. Not to mention the little walk to the letter box nearby. But I am wrong, the mobile phones have their great triumph and make their entrance in that lonely lives… Ringing and chatting everywhere. The German wanted to be very clever. They called their mobile “Handy”. Mind candy! Now the industry makes the phones so handy that we have to take great pain to pull them out of pocket. It is a race: Who is faster, the development of miniaturization; are we, pulling out, or the impatience of the caller? But does no matter. We are chatterboxes! No matter if on the loo, in the train or wherever, we are talking and chatting. Most important messages are changed. So important that we feel like cheering everybody roundabout. Consequently to the amount of talking at all, the ability to express is developed: “Nee, U-Bahn, gleich da!” I beg your pardon, reader. It is impossible to translate, or better: Do not ask for, you might suffer self-inflicted injury. This had lead to next communication form and its necessary. Owing to the mobiles our common manners changed a great deal. Therefore we are kindly asked to switch off our “communications machines”. In concert halls poster draw our attention to this, in cinema the advice gives a comic strip, in the theatre they ask for directly from the stage, and in classroom the teacher is bringing it up time after time. We have got so used to the mobiles, that we have forgotten them until they are ringing. It seems that we have been knitted together with them, and an operation by a surgeon only can help. Say me your message first, and we can go ahead to the important things. We are that communicative! But no word comes up into our mind when we are sitting vis-à-vis to each other. We are over-stretched. Because we are finding us faced to scores of features. It is just not what we know from our mobile or computer screen. And I miss the keyboard, where I can “play” my thoughts on. From the begin on people have the keen desire to write and pass messages; asked for or unasked, and other people have to read them. Nevertheless the influence of E-Mail via “Internet” or WorldWideWeb is not as bad. Most can live without being tied to the net, whereas a very popular German actor claims “Ich lebe online”, meant, he lives online. Cheers! The statement about quality versus quantity of mobile chats is as good as for the E-Mails. E- Mails have been written and sent pretty quick. This causes mistakes, type mistakes and stylistic mistakes as well. It might not matter in messages to friends and another informal E-Mails, but life is not always informal and happens to friends. Sometimes it can be embarrassing for the sender. For the addressee it is annoying, when he gets lots Correction-Mail. When it is the right addressee at all! But this rubbish can easy tossed into the wastepaper basket. What a mercy. The computer does it without any rustle. And the wood is grateful to you. There is still the one statement: E-Mails are not personally enough. Well, I agree. But be honest, when did you pass a very personally message? Was it really in letter form? As far as my memory serves, it had been ages before I did it in person. Besides it had been an proposal of marriage. Believe it or not. Nothing really important happens online. There are always less sensual messages sent there and back. If I could measure the WASTE of time I had been online, maybe exchanged in MONEY, might be a confidential thought, I could stop working. Well, depends on the exchange rate… As to the security, you have to make sure that you have a printed copy left of your messages and documents. For the case the incoming message got a flu (virus XYZ) or the outgoing is cut, which frequently happens, and your computer begs to report: “system error” or there is no reply any more, be quiet. You can entrust your messages to the postman, he will pass them, no matter which weather. It is still his job. And it shall be. ------------ About the author: Have not published in English, but in German. Prose and lyric in anthologies. Email U. Christine Künkel: chris-letter@web.de Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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