Our generation of communication

It would be hard to imagine life without the convenience of text messaging and e-mail. Today, it is perfectly normal to just e-mail a co-worker and text our friends. With such speed and convenience, it is easy to understand how we could all just forget the simple joys of traditional mail.

Portland State has become a very digital campus. Class registration is managed online, as well as tuition payments and grades. In addition to the convenience and speed, there is the “green” advantage. It does not take any paper to register for a class online.

In this day and age, it would not make sense to use older methods of communication in a business environment, except for important documents and packages. After all, why wait for a message or phone call when you can instantly send a message to a person’s inbox or pocket? It does make sense.

Communication these days goes beyond professional use. Facebook reported through its blog in 2009 that it had over 250 million users worldwide. It is very common in this country for people to use a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account to keep in touch with friends, make plans and keep track of dates.

There is also the growing use of chat programs within social networking. Such easy and constant access to social networking and chat programs has almost made it unnecessary to make phone calls if one doesn’t want to.

In the digital age, we are seeing less and less snail mail; other than in the form of bank statements, gas bills and magazines, we generally don’t get personal letters from friends anymore. Most of the time, when we want to wish someone a happy birthday, we just leave a message for them on Facebook rather than find them a card. Not to say that that is bad— it’s just how we do things these days.

Printed or handwritten letters seem to be reserved for the most personal of letters and official documents. Personal snail mail is almost comparable to a CD or mix tape that many students still make for special occasions like Mother’s Day. In some ways, non-digital communication has become a romantic gesture as it takes time to actually put together and send in ways that many digital forms do not.

So while we should embrace technologies that allow us to effectively communicate and further our sustainability goals, we should also remember to hold on to more sentimental and tangible methods of talking to each other. It’s nice to hear a friend’s voice over the phone and it can be heartwarming to get a letter in the mail.