Monday 16 November 2015

The death of conversation.

While putting up an act if cleaning my cupboard, I came across an old letter that I had received from my best friend in middle school. Nostalgia filled up in me and WhatsApp-ed her. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey! Just found the letter you wrote to me back in school, filled with nostalgia. What's up?

*after 3 hours*

Her: Hey so good to hear from you! I'm great, wbu? How's life?

*after an hour*

Me: All good :D

- - - - - -

Well, that's about it. And the conversation died. Let me point out here that the letter in discussion was sent by her when she hadn't seen me for 15 days, and telephones were still too expensive, so she sent the letter with someone ( whom I do not recollect right now). I do not doubt for a minute that in a universe where there was no WhatsApp, where I would've written a letter to her, we would've caught up with each other more warmly. I wish to draw your attention not towards why our chat ended quickly, but towards the use of mode of conversation.

Think about it : haven't we forgotten how to communicate ?

How many of us can write a long letter to a close one right now? Not many, I believe. Internet has changed the way we live, talk, dress, and communicate. We expect instant gratification, we want instant replies. We probably don't realise it, but we are too insecure or too egoistic to write an "I love you" or a "I miss you" and wait for even a day to receive a reply, let alone a week. We do not know what the other person is thinking, and that freaks us out somewhere deep inside us. What if the other person is not missing me? Will I come across as desperate?

I'm guilty of generalising a bit here, but I stand firm on the point that the art of conversation is lost. Technology has made us too complacent and we strive for real time information; having forgotten what it is to put out your heart in a letter and the expectancy of a response. This is just one of the many ways in which we have allowed technology to alter our lives.

The feeling you get in writing and receiving letters is not something that can be described in words. If you haven't experienced it, nobody can explain to you. Like most other feelings, it has to be felt in order to be felt.

Conclusively, I'd suggest you to write something, not text it, but write it. And let me know in the comments how it goes! :D

1 comment:

  1. Wow! this is so true and so nice, this explains why they have to teach letter writting even at college level and still people can not write good letters because we lack practical aspect of it.

    Its so sweet to read a letter from a friend and you really feel the heart that person as you read because he/she takes time to use appropriate words and ensure correctness is kept in mind. And we are invoked to reply as much as we can.

    Thanks for the wonderful work Heer.

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