Silence is Golden

i think i was just dripped on.. which is quite worrying.. being inside my flat and all

i haven't blogged in a while.. but a friend posted a few questions for a school project type thing and i was gonna responed and figured it was far more blogworthy than my usual ramblings about sleeping/pooing patterns and how life is all part of an unavoidable spiral towards the void.. so why not do it here

the basics of the questions are.. this. the communication age.. all the new fangled forms of digital communication.. a good thing, or just tools that destroy social skills in The Youth Of Today

now people hold opinions on all kinds of stuff referencing this and that and applying this precident to this case and showing their take on their part of their available evidence to back up their theory... but in the end the only opinions really worth anything are those based on personal experience.. so that's the angle i can come from on that

up till the age of 18 i lived in a world, at least my world, in which digital communication was still nobody i knew owned a mobile phone or was hooked up to the internet, and myspace was still a piece of dust in the corner of toms wallet.. today my work and lifestyle means i'm online for anything up to 16hours in a day and my phone is permenantly switched on.. so there's a decent contrast to work on

now the argument is that face to face conversation is more expressive than digital communcation, easier, or at least more accurate, to read, ultimately more rewarding..that may be an argument, everyone is different etc.. but from my point of view, that's almost backwards.. 

i, particularly as a kid, never really 'got' face to face communication.. especially with those that you are not familiar with.. for me there was too much going on it in, too easy to misread or get confused.. too much reliance on trust and confidence that their was no hidden agenda or meaning in what was being said to you, or not said to you, or how it was being said to you.. and of course then the intense pressure to reply, instantly, with the appropriate words, nuances, intonations, expressions... eye contact!! it was a lot to deal with and 8 times out of 10 i dealt with it badly

obviously i've got better at all that since i got older and more confident.. though, whether it means anything or not it's worth noting that i started getting better around the time i also started using the internet for communication... could just be coincidence though.. i'll let the 'experts' decide

now digital communication.. from the letter writing of emails [i honestly don't see the difference between an email and a letter, except people can read when i type.. mostly] to the nearest replacement we have for physical conversation.. instant messaging.. i get... it's words and you read them.. and we have a variety of tools developed to put some mre expression into them... but there's no misleading facial expressions.. and most importantly.. no pressure.. you take what time you need to make sure that what you are saying is actually what you want to say

sure it has its failings... there will always be misunderstanding in human communication.. it's like refereeing in sports.. it's what makes it interesting.... but it's just so much easier to deal with

yes, it's more detached... but rather than feeling that it makes me more detached.. it just makes me appreciate the closeness more when physical communication takes places [not that that's an admission to liking the closeness you understand.. detached is good.. safe... beautiful]

hell.. now we have blogging.. what was the predecessor to that? standing in front of a room and telling everyone what you wanted them to know about what was going on in your head.... writing a diary in the hope that your friends would steal it and read it... nah.. this is new... and as has been demonstrated, something i'm a fan of.. but of course i am motivated purely by ego.. and the suffering of others.. so each to their own and all that

i'll probably change my mind on all that tomorrow.. it's a lot of words so i'm not reading it back now... hell.. sod itl.. argue with me... that's what communications all about isn't it? proving what you think is better than what i think? that you love me more than i love you?

or something. x