Influences

I wrote a letter to my mother via long hand and one to my best friends via email. I chose to write my mother long hand because she is not completely up to date with technology. Technology has almost passed her, she does not even use text messaging. So email is not one of her better communication methods. My best friend however, I communicate with her online all the time. Ususally it is facebook or myspace. The letter I wrote to my mother was shorter only because I have less things to talk about with her. I know that sounds bad but you all know you have a lot to talk about with your best friend. C'mon ladie you all kno you have a lot to say to your best friend. Well I do. But My best friend's letter was longer. The tone to my mother was different in that it may have been more proper sounding. I speak differently with my parents and friends because they each understand me differently. I speak with my best friend in a more leisurely tone because she is my best friend and we normally speak to our friends in an informal way. I also noticed I would get off track in what i was thanking my best friend for while I was writing. I would go off on tangents talking about this time and that time and remember when we did this. But i do have a lot to thank my bestfriend for.

The differences in what and how I wrote to my mother and best friend I feel were not due to the method I was writing in, long hand vs. email, but more in simply who I was writing to. I do have to say though, that I got some wird responses because I do not just thank the people in my life everyday, though I know I should. But I got wierd responses because I normally call my mom and call my best friend. Writing letter like those are not typically how I communicate I guess. This relates back to what was discussed in lecture, Some research suggests that an overreliance on online communication can have detrimental effects on real life communication." The way I am used to communicating with the people in my life I noticed is, the people closest to me or that I need to communicate with a lot I call by phone, and the internet comes in when I need to communicate less with someone or at an asyncronous pace. But I do feel like there are those days when I am lazy and I wish my mom knew how to text message because I do not really feel like talking. Or those days that I do not feel like being on the phone so I write my best friend over the internet rather than calling her. This is where I think online communication becomes detrimental to everyday communication, when we replace everyday communication with online communication. I think the problem is that online communication is replacing rather than supplementing at certain times due to certain needs.