I got a couple of cronies who still write letters, which I return religiously, but the truth is, most of my correspondence these days is by e-mail. Tells you my age right there. The folks younger than me, they look at e-mail almost like snail mail. Too wordy, too long, too damn much trouble when you can text message.<\/p>\n
For the longest time I thought a lot of my digital pen-pals were entering senility or onset Alzheimers. Their spelling got terrible, the syntax was lost, the punctuation became perfunctory. That, or they only send e-mails when they\u2019re drunk or on drugs or not fully caffeinated. Or, knowing half my cronies, all of the above\u2026. It took me a couple of years to discover they were treating e-mails like text messages.<\/p>\n
I majored in English in college. Even taught it for a short time. Literature, communication skills, language — call me old fashioned and wheel me out for Nathaniel Hawthorne Day, but I still think these are useful skills. I was in town today, bantering with a friend in a shared language, English, and we still had a misunderstanding. Imagine two people trying to communicate with separate linguistics. Kind of like a native Utsaladian asking directions down here for the South End Diner. Good luck, Sven! Probably end up at the Marina ordering lutefisk. Possibly tragic consequences.<\/p>\n
Lately I\u2019ve been noticing that responses to my e-mails are, well \u2026. Let\u2019s be kind here \u2026 it\u2019s as if they only read the first sentence. I\u2019m realizing all my literary endeavors are completely wasted. AND, worse! They\u2019re just so much extraneous clutter for my recipient. They\u2019re not going to read anything longer than a Tweet now. Anything more, I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s Pulitzer Worthy, it\u2019s instant trash. If I got something Important to say, better just SAY it. Folks are a little too busy for floral accoutrements, literary flourishes, or artistic embellishments. Which, now that I think of it, means most of you readers abandoned me back in the first paragraph.<\/p>\n
Well, okay. I just re-read the first paragraph. Too wordy. Too long. Too damn much trouble when you can text message. Here\u2019s the tip of the day: hit DELETE. If you haven\u2019t already\u2026..<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got a couple of cronies who still write letters, which I return religiously, but the truth is, most of my correspondence these days is by e-mail. Tells you my age right there. The folks younger than me, they look at e-mail almost like snail mail. Too wordy, too long, too damn much trouble when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4609,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608\/revisions\/4609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}