Mediums of Writing

Whatever method it may be that you choose to deliver your message, whether it be a written letter or a text on your cell phone, that system will affect the way that the person on the other end receives it. For example, you wouldn’t want to break up with your romantic partner on facebook (or maybe you would if you are devoid of all feelings for them as both a lover and an emotional human being) just as you wouldn’t want to facebook your grandmother. Sometimes a certain medium is not appropriate for the situation.

I love my family in small doses but since I went away to college it has become increasingly brutal to spend the summers at home. I swear that my house is shrinking as the years go by. The house that I used to share comfortably with four other people, now feels like a prison. Because of this, we fight…a lot. Somewhere at the end of June, my father and I got into a battle of epic proportions because I slammed the microwave door too hard. I had been watching other people’s demon spawn all day and my father just returned home from a grueling 9 hour day at work and we were just waiting for someone to come along so we could unleash our inner pent up fury on him or her. We really should have known better than to even be in the same room with each other. Our fight escalated to a vicious level and soon we were casting the most hurtful things that we could possibly come up with at each other. And then we didn’t talk for three days.

Eventually I sent him a text, this being the only form of communication that I could muster considering the non-intimate nature of it. I wouldn’t have to see him, and the plain text had no real emotion in it. He didn’t text me back.

Next I wrote him a handwritten letter apologizing for shutting the microwave door so hard and calling him nasty names (he said some mean words to me but I was willing to swallow my pride). After this he knocked on my door, apologized, and asked me if I wanted to go get sushi.

My father didn’t reply to my text because it was an inacceptable way to apologize to someone you are so close to. Texting is fantastic for brief, to-the-point messages such as “meet me at Neubig at 3pm” or “what time is the Dragon Chronicle meeting?” but to use it as a medium for apologies…no way.

I feel like people appreciate more primitive writing methods because they are rare. Think of how many text messages, facebook comments, or emails you have received in the past month and now compare that to how many handwritten letters you have received. As technology advances, our basic mediums increase in value.