This week I sent two personal letters to friends. One was sent via email and one traditionally through the mail. The assignment is the describe the difference in content and response between the two letters. The first letter, which was sent via email I sent to a long time friend. This particular friend and I email frequently to each other at work. This email would be no different I sat down during lunch to send it. I talked a little about a trip that I am planning on going on. I asked her how she was and told her that I had been thinking about her. The email turned out to be a few paragraphs. She responded to the email quite quickly she must of been on her break as well. She answered that she was excited to her about the trip and that she had been extremely busy at work lately. She invited me to dinner at her house and told me that she missed me.
In reviewing the email for this assignment I realized that in email I am very direct. I ask questions and almost always get a direct response to the questions I ask. The second thing that I noticed that I did not ellaborate on the trip very much because I figured I would see her soon and would tell her later. The response was followed by many subsequent emails. It seems as though there was much I forgot to tell her in the first email and we traded a few emails to get it all out of our system. The following emails were much smaller and contained many "Verbalizations". (Wood, Smith 84).
The second letter that I sent was handwritten. I wrote this letter to my husband's grandmother. She did not have email and this was the only way to reach her via mail. I sent her a nice card that said "thinking of you". I wrote about what I had been doing this summer, and talked about my sons camps that he had been attending. I also told her that we missed her now that she lived so far away it was hard to get a chance to talk. This letter turned out much longer than the email. I took up every white space on the card. The content seem to go deeper as well. I felt as though because it was not convenient to communicate with her via email my cards seem to contain more information. I also included a picture of my son swimming. The response was much slower. Almost a week later I got a card back from her with a giraffe on the front. She responded that she too was having a great summer although she missed us as well. She thanked me for the card and thinking about her. I enjoy writing letters to her because it is the only contact we have. She can't hear the telephone and does not receive email. Plus she would never understand the language of the email with it's abbreviations.
The differences in email than in hand writing a letter have to do with the idea of convenience. This idea is that someone is always accessible via email. Therefore we are able to send them information at any time. Therefore when I go to email them I feel as though I should only talk about things briefly and will save conversation for in person. When I mail a letter I fell as though this is an inconvenience. Therefore I include more information as it may take me a while to send another one. So I tell as much as I can at that point including more personal thoughts and ideas.
This was an interesting assignment because I did not think about the difference.
Emily
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You brought up a good point about the Verbalizations, I didn't really think about it at the time, but with some thought afterward I realized that I did leave a few things out of both letters. I had a small conversation with my dad over email, only a couple traded back and forth. I've yet to hear from my mom however, and that's probably because of when I sent it, haha. But it's interesting how IM and chatrooms are defined by bits of a message at once. I think the fast-paced nature of technological communication is a benefit, because the conversations are synced faster and it allows for a more "real" experience to occur.
ReplyDeleteI never really realized either that when I send and email whoever I happen to be writing and I go back and forth and back and forth. I've sent one email that lasted for weeks and weeks being sent over and over with new questions and new additions and longer explanations. I guess the immediacy of email can be beneficial as it can prolong and nurture a conversation where if you had sent a letter the same conversation would've taken years and most likely never have even progressed to that point.
ReplyDeleteI do think though that we choose our words more carefully when handwriting. We know that it's going to take time and effort to get there and the person receiving the letter is more likely to keep it and cherish it and show it to others. I know I still have letters I was given in high school whereas I tend to delete all emails once a year.
Perhaps there is a difference in the quality of content but I do think that both forms of communication are beneficial to communication.