Let’s talk

I am having a conversation about talking to people. As you have probably read here, and may have even guessed, I love to talk to people. I connect well, face-to-face. It was hard during the pandemic to lose that ability and only communicate through technology.

A member of a committee, of which I just recently became chairperson, likes the idea of sending letters with requests rather than talking with the person. It’s even suggested to send a self-addressed, stamped envelope so they can just check a box and send their answer back by return mail. I wanted to scream when I heard this. Now, if the person is hard to contact in person, I have nothing against calling them and chatting, even leaving a voice mail. I did a lot of that during the COVID pandemic. And, I am not against sending mail as I just sent three cards yesterday to people who I did not see at church on Sunday, letting them know they were missed.

But…talking face to face is just so much more meaningful to me. I can see facial expressions. I can get an idea while talking and immediately convey it. The person with whom I’m talking can give me opinions and perhaps even send me in a different direction. This happened last Sunday when a member and I were discussing use of her brother’s memorial fund. I shared some information with her that gave her a completely different insight on something she had pondered. We both came away from the conversation feeling warm and fuzzy. A letter does not do that.

Now, I like technology. If you’ve been here for very long, you know how much I love social media and blogging to convey my thoughts and interests. I like to text people when I have a quick question and need a quick answer. Or, even no answer at all, just a way to let them know what’s going on. I am so glad we have the technology to communicate quickly and easily. But, nothing will ever take the place of communicating face to face with another human being.

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I love a good conversation but I’m not sure Facebook is the place for that

I finally joined Facebook this summer.  I did it very surreptitiously, without telling anyone, and just sat back to see what happened.  Within a few days a friend or two had found me and “friended” me.  From there on it snowballed.  I have now been “friended” by coworkers, former students, my daughter, some of her friends, and friends from church.

I’m still waiting to see the purpose of the thing.  There are few real conversations. Most of it being what a person is doing right that minute. (I thought that was what Twitter was for.)  The best part has been seeing pictures of my granddaughter as Facebook is the only place our daughter puts those pictures.

I just read an article in More magazine about people my age using Facebook to reconnect to their friends from high school.  I haven’t heard from those people in almost 40 years so I doubt that any of them are suddenly going to show up.  Plus, my name is no longer the same as I had in high school.

Although I post some links that I have found interesting, I don’t get any comments so little to no conversation gets started.  I check other’s “walls” to see what they are linking to, but I don’t find much.

I can sit and talk for hours with friends in 3D, but the Facebook thing isn’t quite the same.  I’ll stick with it for awhile and see what happens.  Perhaps some of my dear Readers have a different take?