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| 'The breakwater' by Joris Louwes under a CC license |
It 's not that writing something down has become more difficult than it normally is. It's the lack of motivation for putting that extra effort in wrapping it up - the much needed step before hitting the 'publish' button.
Don't get me wrong, the paragraph above is not meant to be a kind of humble brag. Rather, it is just a plain reference to the common, school-grade essay-writing methodology.
But - hmmm - I'm already diverging from the topic I had in mind, which - by the way - has nothing to do with either technology or innovation.
The other day I was talking with an old friend. A person who now lives several thousand miles away, with whom I haven't had a descent, full-scale conversation for months or even more. Silly, I know; especially in the age of internet/voip/social-something everywhere that we live in. Not that I didn't have valid excuses ready (I always do). Silly, perhaps also sad, but true.
At any rate, it was nice catching up, spending quite some time describing trivial details of everyday life, as if they did, really, matter.
And that was exactly what got me thinking.
It's not necessarily what one has to say. And it's not necessarily if it is technically easy or not to communicate a message at a certain time. It's the outcome of the feeling we are after that which defines the distance to a person and justifies the effort to communicate.
(OK, the lines above are 'a touch' more dramatic than they should. And, to be fair, plenty of the things we say during the day are part of our working life or inseparable aspects of our operation as 'normally functional individuals'. To such thing, the paragraph above does not apply. But if you place this part out of the communication equation, the rest seems to be fully up to us.)
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2 comments:
1. It’s funny, but for me it is hard to discuss “trivial details of everyday life” with people I don’t feel close to, even if this needs to be done in the context of social politeness. I guess this works as an indicator of intimacy for my relationship with others!
2. I never liked the term “old friend” because it entails two –both negative – meanings: old in age (!), or no longer existed. I prefer the “a friend with whom I no longer share everyday routine, but I always enjoy chatting with” or the shorter one “a friend”... Interestingly enough, this is when distance or frequency of communication just do not matter.
@Anonymous:
Regarding point no. 1, yes I agree. The person I was talking about falls into that category. It's just that we hadn't been able to talk for ages.
Regarding no. 2, for me the meaning is "being a friend for a loooong time now".
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