Communication breakdown

When I was growing up, and actually until about 20 years ago there were only a few ways to get in touch with someone. You could go to their house, Write them a letter and if it was a momentous occasion, you could send a telegram. When I was on my travels I was limited to Phone or letter. I would write to my friends or family and let them know where I was moving on to next. The whole process of sending a letter and receiving a reply normally took about 2 weeks so phone was a much better option if you could work out the time difference. I think because of the limitations to mail or Phone calls it made any communication seem more special and there were times when receiving a letter really lifted my spirits and I eagerly awaited my next installment of life back in the UK.

It seems that nowadays the level of communication methods available is ever increasing. A quick calculation tells me that there are at least 25 different ways that someone can get in touch with me if they need to. This is not even taking into consideration that emails are available on multiple devices, work that into the equation and the numbers could begin to spiral out of control. I currently have 4 email addresses, 3 of these are personal emails with one business address. I was happy with just 2 emails and only really used one but then my Mobile phone encouraged me to sign up to an additional address so that I could get the most from my Android device. I  then became to proud owner of a Gmail account.

Social networking sites really bump up the contact methods as there are multiple communication tools on these, I don’t subscribe to all of the social media but there are at least 7 different ways these few that I have can be used to get a message to me, either directly or through “Tagging”. Even the mobile phone has more ways of being used than the normal phone call or text message. Apps like Skype or Whats App can be used if you decide you don’t want to pay for the call or message and have an internet connection. Yet despite all of this technology we have to hand, it seems that the art of communication is still dying and we needlessly lose touch with people or have an actual conversation. Exchanges like “Have you spoken to John recently”? , “No, but he pops up on Xbox live every so often” Or “No, but he liked my status update the other day…” are all too commonplace.