Word of the Week #322:
So, I’ve been noticing that I don’t enjoy texting anymore.
Now, anyone who has known me over the years—and certainly everyone who has dated me—knows that texting has been my preferred form of communication. I remember telling my friends how texting was by far the supreme form of communication and how I should never be contacted any other way.
Now, I don’t even like texting.
It just feels more empty than it used to. Hollow.
You know, so much of a real conversation, real bonding, is non-verbal. We lose a lot of that over text. There are so many times when just sitting together, not even talking too much, but being around each other can feel so rewarding. You can never get that over a text, right?
And let’s face it, I’m a writer. If someone knows the limitations of words, it must be me, right?
So why the sudden change of heart?
To begin with, it was probably not quite sudden. It must have been going on for a while now. I have been noticing that I feel less and less involved in my ongoing conversations over texts. However, there have just been enough exceptions with whom it was still fun.
Most importantly, though, I think I go along with texting because all other options are so much worse.
Would I like to connect over the phone? Hell, no!
Do I want to meet in person? I mean, even if I want to, odds are that I won’t, even if I can. And with my friends being scattered all across the globe, there are just people whom I can’t meet in person.
So what other options are there?
I’ve been thinking of writing letters. Now, I know what you’re thinking—emptiness of words. How are more words supposed to remedy the fundamental limitations of words?
Well, I’m a writer. If anyone can keep faith in the power and the magic of the written word, it is me.
With letters, I hope to retain control over the flow of my words in a way that one cannot in a dialogue. That’s why I like writing books and blog posts, after all. Unilateral control.
By just writing one letter every week—or two, or four—to only the people I love, I have to communicate my thoughts and feelings in a deeper, clearer, more effective, and more coherent way without being restricted by a need for the right questions and right responses at the right time with the right flow and mood and tone.
To be honest, it sounds like a lot of work… So much that I might not even do it…
Still, I think there are some merits to the idea.
Let’s see.
On the other hand, do I even want to communicate with people? Or do I just want to be left alone?
That, Detective, is the right question.
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