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Writing is both mask and
unveiling. ~ E.B. White
I am in a quandary. I rely on
email, the Internet, and social media. I see the value of these cyber tools,
even if I sometimes feel more like a slave to them than a master. However,
today I was caught off guard when I read an email telling me of the death of a
dear friend. Her death was there, in a brief email, just below the subject
line. The subject line was simply her name. I know this is the way we announce
death these days—I myself have done this. It is no different from a newspaper
obituary. However, there is something cold about words delivered
electronically, whether via a Facebook posting, or even this blog. Perhaps it
is the fact that reading words on an electronic screen lacks the warmth of
paper. Or that it would be more comforting to learn of someone’s death from a
live voice. I don’t know. What I do know is that I am doubly sad. Bereft over
the loss of my friend and heartbroken to witness the hard cold facts this electronic
age brings to us.
Dear Lucinda,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I am sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. I know you will find comfort in memories of good times; memories that will become your friend's heritage and legacy - and part of yours as well.
Second, I fully agree with you regarding the use of electronic media to convey, well, really much of anything these days. We can be intimate with one another, slightly less intimate with a personal note, a little bit more, indeed, with words printed on paper.
But when our communication descends to the electronic dispatch of 1s and 0s, we become so impersonal, so detached that a portion of our humanity is sacrificed in the interest of expediency. If we have become so obsessed with the speed of communication over human to human contact, we have moved further away from what we could be: a society of heart.
Immediacy cannot be that important.