I have a younger sister and there is six years between us. I was talking with her the other evening, on the phone, and I mentioned to her that she should write a “thank you note” to our other sister for a gift that she gave us. The next day I sent a thank you note in the mail to my other sister for the same reason. A few days went by and I got a call from my sister, she mentioned to me she thought it was funny that I sent a card, and our other sister sent an email.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I love technology. I love having my email in the palm of my hand, I love texting for the convenience of it, I love being able to Google a subject on a handheld screen, but there is nothing like a good “old fashion” hand written note. In “Annual Editions: Technologies, Social Media, and Society – 12/13” it says, “The Myspace page has replaced the journal and the letter as a way of creating and communicating ones sense of self.”
Of course Myspace is outdated, but it really got me thinking. I had just experienced this with my sister. And now I am reading that quote. At one point in the world we found dead people’s journals and it made them famous. Is society going to have to dig through old computers to find the next great documentation of someone’s life!?
But that could be better, right? We could contrast computer or tablet entries with emails and other computer documents to get a full understanding of a person. Is this an invasion of privacy if we do this? When we, as people, post things on social media, it is out there forever. This is why privacy settings are so important. Because the world is so technology driven nowadays, I soon may not have a say in if someone can go through my computer after I am dead. The moral of this story is to write hand written letters, and privatize your stuff online. Some day someone may go through your computer and you may be famous for reasons you don’t want to be.