Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The missing link...

Hi Neil

It's Friday evening, no pub this week, so I thought I would start my blog entry. Hey, have I finally mastered the art of forward planning........probably not.

It's been a strange week for me, there have been many high's and low's, it's been a very happy week but also a week when I have shed more tears than I care to think about, and let's not forget the two very amusing phone calls about a swimming pool.

I would like to type/talk about communication. Most of the population by now have a pc or at least access to one, and even more people have a mobile phone. We all send text messages and emails by the bucket load, but when was the last time you sat down and put pen to paper-you remember it's called writing a letter.

7 year old did not send thank you cards for the birthday presents he received, he sent emails. I never write a letter anymore, I aways type them, I personally find it quicker and easier to type and of course there is the added bonus of spell check. I don't send many Xmas cards(bugger, it's only June and I've mentioned Xmas)because I hate writing them, and often they are meaningless, I of course send a donation to charity, it's less time consuming and in my view money well spent.

One of my high's this week(and as you know I'm easily pleased) was to receive a hand written letter. Forget the content and who sent it, that's not the issue, the main reason for sharing this with you, is it made me feel really, really special. Someone had taken the time to put pen to paper and send me a letter. They could have sent an email or text, but to be honest it would not of had quite the same effect. I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I received a hand written letter, can you?

Does this mean we all communicate better with each other, no it does not! How many times have you sent and email or text and the recipient has misunderstood and taken it out of context. I have, several times. As you type your smiling, it is meant to be light hearted, and funny, but could also be interpreted as rude and abrupt. So although we text/type more often it does not make us any better at communicating.

I was sent these facts about communicating, a study on communication showed that 70% of communication was through body language, 23% was how you spoke ( the meter and timbre of the voice) and only 7% was what the actual words were. If that holds true you should only be able to understand any written communication 7%. The rest is lost in the translation!

Because I know my skills are limited, and this is not my usual topic, can I clarify that this entry is supposed to be light hearted, and my soap box for once is securely locked away!!

Just incase anyone is confused, this was meant to be last weeks blog but I failed to send it to Piddy. I thought I would cheat and use it this week as I have nothing else that I am able to share with you! I have decided after today I will refrain from describing my life in detail, because as I have discovered, you never know who could be reading!

Gx

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that a nice way of saying I talk/type a load of b*****ks? I don't mind if it is, because most of the time I do! Gx ;o)

Anonymous said...

oh i loved your blog G it was brilliant i know what you mean its lovely when someone takes the time to write a letter it can make your day but so can a text when you are feeling down too Lx

Anonymous said...

Just trying to make excuses for the things I type/talk. As usual it was an honest entry, and the subject clearly meant a lot to me. Thanks for the compliment, blimey it's nearly midnight, must get some sleep. Gx