In the days of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, texting, wouldn't it be great to return to a time when not everyone knew what was going on in your life and only speculated?
I was thinking about this yesterday when I checked my facebook page and realized that I probably knew what one of my friends had for dinner every night last week, or at least every meal over the weekend. I also knew if he was having a problem, what it was, and every piece of advice from across the nation that he received. I kept my advice to myself, knowing that eventually he would get it from one of the friends who kept posting encouragement.
In the past you had the one person on the block that would look in your windows, listen over the fence, talk to the kids, and then report to the whole neighborhood what was happening in your life. If you lived out in the country you didn't even have that. Privacy. What a concept. Except no one person seems to want it anymore. "Look what's happening in my life!" seems to be the theme of the 2000's. I'm guilty myself, with this blogging and facebook.
It seems to go beyond the written word as well. Depending on the person, you might know what type of underwear they're wearing, who they love, what they hate, if they need to be on a diet, if they don't eat at all. Get the picture?
I would love to go back to the days when family secrets stayed secrets, dirty laundry was aired on the clothes line, not on the internet. I'd love to be enamoured of movie stars and never know if they were a closet drunk, or gay, or a liar and a cheat. Those were the days when Hollywood protected their own. I'd love to be able to hear inspirational stories from my friends first hand, instead of through email I have to pass on to 10 friends in order for something good to happen to me in 24 hours.
And to receive an actual letter through the mail! I don't know the last time I received or wrote a letter and sent it out. I used to when I was a kid. I had a pen pal from Japan and it was always amazing to me that my letters reached her and hers reached me! The paper, the ink, the style of writing and punctuation allowed me my love and use of stationary. I still buy beautiful paper. I started scrapbooking for the variety...
I just wish that being so open about everything wasn't so accepted. A quieter, more peaceful time - paradise. They say decades repeat themselves. Couldn't we go back to the 40's and 50's just once?
I would love a letter in the mail, something that is easy to open, has no password to remember. I would also like to hear peoples voices, not a 'lol' but actual laughter.
ReplyDeleteSo, start with yourself. don't share personal things anyway but face to face. Write someone a real letter.
ReplyDeleteTurn the elctronics off. At almost 60, and a North Country Native living in Maryland; I've recently rediscovered silence.