Sunday 6 February 2011

Sunday thoughts - communication

Communication these days seems to be nearly entirely electronic. In our house we have a desktop computer and a laptop computer; if I'm upstairs and the other-half is downstairs we'll often use email to communicate... or Twitter!  We both have smartphones which we can use to call, text, email (and Twitter!) and we use the phones at home as well as out and about. We do have a landline - we hardly ever use the phone though except when we use the multiple handsets to call each other in different parts of the house. We do usually manage to talk to each other when we're actually in the same room!

When I was growing up we lived in a five bedroom house. When we wanted to communicate with each other,often as not, we shouted. We had one telephone, in the kitchen - and that wasn't cordless either. By the time my brother and I were in our teens we'd progressed to two telephones, still not cordless. My Dad did have an early mobile phone (the first was actually a car phone and couldn't come out of the car!) - I remember the pager better (now consigned to medical professionals only it seems).

It's hard to remember how we got by before the world was full of instant communication. When you wanted to go out and meet with friends you made plans to be at a place, at a time, and you were there at that time. Now we all carry our mobile phones and make plans 'on the fly' if we can't be at the right place at the right time you just make a call.