We are all guilty of it. Why bother to pick up the telephone when it seems so much easier to just text or WhatsApp a short message?
I remember the first time that I realized how much I was expected to carry my phone with me at all times. I was working in my kitchen when my home (land) line rang and I answered it, only to be chastised by one of my children complaining that I did not answer her text message. I explained that I did not carry my phone with me at every second of the day and usually kept it upstairs near my purse. I quickly found out that such behavior was unacceptable in today’s day and age. Now I carry my phone with me or have it nearby like everyone else. It follows me from room to room. I might as well get rid of my home (landline) phone as the majority of calls on it are spam anyway.
Just a few minutes ago an acquaintance from Montreal called me to wish me mazel tov on the wonderful news of the engagement of our grandson Ari Hagler to Shoshi Tuchman. She easily could have texted me but instead chose to speak and have a conversation. It was so meaningful that she actually took the time to pick up the phone and we spent time chatting together.
What has happened to the art of conversation? Have we lost our ability to speak in full sentences? I truly miss conversing voice to voice on the telephone. I know that it is the same old story that everyone is too busy and therefore texting makes it so much easier. Do people honestly believe that the older generation was not busy? We had far fewer devices to make our lives easier and things such as iPads, iPhones, Androids, texting, etc. did not exist.
As these devices have taken over the lives of most people; perhaps we should look at what we have lost and what we are teaching our children. How many of our children today are encouraged to sit down and write letters? I can speak from personal experience about the sense of gratification I got—and still get—when a grown child of mine sits down and writes me a letter expressing their concern and love for me, as well as my grandchildren taking the time to write me a letter thanking me for the time that we spent together; for the trip to Dunkin Donuts, going out for pizza. Yes, there are still kids who do not take these things for granted.
Children will lose the art of writing as well as speaking appropriately because everything these days seems to be in abbreviations, emojis (many of which I do not understand) or acronyms. Please do not LOL at what I am writing. IMO, this is all quite crazy. We are blessed to send our children to schools with above-standard educational resources; instead of learning to write sentences they will soon be taught how to abbreviate words in order to save that precious time we all need more of because we are so busy.
We all know that an example of young people no longer writing letters is the absence of thank you notes, which are a common source of discussion on various chat groups. It seems that the younger generation is fine with it and the older generation is slightly embarrassed when their children do not take the time to sit down and thank the people who sent them gifts. Is it possible that they no longer know how to write?
Perhaps we should come up with an acronym such as LYG TY (Love your gift; thank you!). They wouldn’t even have to write it; the cards could be printed. Oh, no … we don’t print cards anymore. Perhaps we could convince the great minds at Paperless Posts to come up with a Paperless LYG TY!
I began writing this column in complete seriousness. I am disappointed that the telephone no longer serves as a means of communication as texting has taken over. I miss the personal warmth in a person’s voice. Yet the more that I think about it, the more I am beginning to realize that I am facing a losing battle. Every time I suggest something that might have made more sense from past experience I am told that there is no longer any time for what us old-timers used to do.
Sorry about some things in modern life I will never agree with. TTYL!
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected].
