Tuesday, December 18, 2012

To a friend from the past


Ann Eliza,

My dear friend Jocelyn has told me of the many questions you have of our time. As a favor to her I have agreed to give some of our secrets of this time. However, please do not share them with anyone else I wouldn’t want the world to end in 2012. I think I’ve said too much... Let’s get back on track to what you really want to know.

In today’s world there are several ways to communicate with one another. You no longer have to worry about the ink drying on that piece of parchment, but rather you are able to use your computer and cell phones to catch up with all of your friends and family. There is something called Social Media. It is how people communicate today. There is everything from Facebook, to Twitter, to Blogging, listening to musicians’ new songs on Youtube, and joining virtual book clubs. There are so many ways to keep up with everything it can get pretty exhaustive at times to be honest.  But let’s start with our ways of writing with one another.

Facebook is an outlet of communication that allows you to not only write to your friends and family, but also to share photos of one another along with videos (think of a video like watching someone in real life, but witnessing it later). This tool allows you to be able to quickly keep up to speed with those that you care about and even some people that you don’t really care about but still know everything about their lives. But explaining that would mean explaining meeting random “friends” while drinking during college years, so I’ll leave that up to Jocelyn to explain instead. While we’re on the topic of knowing random people’s lives, there is another tool called Twitter.

Twitter is like Facebook in the aspect that you can see what’s going on in your friends’ lives, but it also allows you to keep up with people that you’ve never even met. You can find out things from Newspapers, Magazines, Authors of all sorts, inventors, athletes, and all sorts of famous people- even the President! This tool will only allow each author to say short tid bits about their lives, so it’s not as personal as Facebook can be but it does give interesting looks into others daily happenings. What about if you want to share your own writing? Well then there is blogging.

Blogging is a format that people can use to express themselves in pages of words. It’s almost like writing your own life story onto a place where everyone can see. It’s revealing and yet entertaining to both write and read what others have to say. And what if you don’t have time to meet up with Betty Sue-Moo on Tuesday for your book club because that snow added an extra six hours of work onto your day? Have no fear! There is an actual place where hundreds of thousands of people share their insight on books, authors, and so much more right from their own home and at their own time.

Lastly, don’t forget Youtube where people will share actual video of their lives, movies, TV shows, music, and anything else that you can think of that a person would want to see. (If you don’t know what TV is I’m sure you and Jocelyn will touch on that another time.) It’s a very fast paced world we live in today. I wouldn’t say it’s lonely, but I think sometimes everyone wishes it was a little more private. With all of this information out in the world it can be very easy to feel like you need a break from everything and go back to your day where talking face to face or waiting for a letter to arrive is enough.

We may live in very different worlds Ann Eliza, but one thing hasn’t changed- knowledge is power. Just be careful what you do with it.

 

With Kind Regards,
Heather Hughley