Dear Ann Eliza

Dear Ann Eliza,

Hello, my friend! I hope this letter finds you well. I am to the understanding that you are interested in learning about how we communicate here in the future. I assure you that things are very different from how they are in your time.

Communication is much more accessible now. We carry cell phones (A device where you are able to speak to someone who can be in any location, not just right next to you!) around with us every day. At least a lot of us do. On these cell phones you can call (by which I mean speak to your friends and family members), text and do a variety of different things. Texting is sending a written message, much like a letter, to the intended receivers phone. It is a glorious thing!

Another thing we like to do on our cell phones that can also be accessed from a computer (a computer is a pretty complex thing to understand. It is a device that in a sense has a brain, but is not alive. I assure you it is not as scary as it sounds!) is socialize on social media. Social media has many different categories. Sites like Instagram are mainly for showing photographs of pretty much anything. Children, the weather, anything. The point is to share a little bit of your day with friends and even people you may not know.

Twitter involves short posts. A great post would be 

“Minnesota Problems ‏@MNproblems  23m23 minutes ago. Have a minnow shot at a bar on a lake! http://kare11.tv/1aUMir4  via @kare1.”

 The gibberish would be the website that the news article can be read at, just to clarify, since you have not experienced the joy that is “the internet.” The main disadvantage to Twitter is the limitation of the lengths of posts. I have also noticed a lot of advertising on Twitter lately. This is frustrating to me. It is nice to scan your Twitter feed with everyone else’s posts. You can get little laughs, or find out news information. Although, it’s never a good idea to 100% trust the internet.

Facebook is my personal favorite form of social media. You can post pictures, links, songs, pretty much anything. You can post all this stuff to Twitter as well, but you have a space limit. On Facebook you can just let the words flow. You can share this information with whomever you choose by adding people as your friend, or denying them if you do not want them to be your friend. This is one of the best ways, in my opinion, to keep in contact with people. You do not have to talk to them every day to actually know how they are doing, see pictures of their children (this might be nice for you will all of your step-kids) and maybe even get to know them a little better than you already do. Another nice thing about Facebook is you can share exactly what you want. Give direct information, just jokes, or anything you feel is the best. I think Facebook is the most open of all social media as you can pretty much do whatever you want.

One annoying thing about Facebook is that they constantly change things around. Once you figure everything out, it changes again. It’s almost like the weather in Minnesota.

Blogs are another great form of social media. It is basically a public diary. You can write whatever you feel on your blog and post it publicly. There are endless kinds of different blogs. Parenting blogs, gardening blogs. Anything that can be done can be blogged about. I have a blog about my son who was born prematurely. It is our story and all the hurdles he overcame. I also have a blog I had to use for Jocelyn’s class. They are really a great form of social media. The great thing about blogs is that you can document your life. It can be shared publicly or kept private. Blogs are generally longer, meetier posts. If you are reading someone else’s blog, be prepared to get sucked into a time consuming hobby! Even writing blogs takes a lot of time and can be very personal. We don’t always want to share that much of our private lives.

In ways I would say that you are missing out on not being able to experience life as we have it now (washing machines are really amazing!), but in ways I think we are the ones missing out. Back in your time, you had to really go out of your way to spend time with someone. You had to really put forth effort to communicate. Now, we can call someone with a flick of our finger, or a few finger taps to shoot off a text. There is nearly no heart behind most communication. We take for granted face-to-face and even phone conversations.

 That being said, I can’t say you would feel less lonely. We are surrounded by people and easy access to conversation, yet most of that is empty. It’s a like on a picture, or a “Lookin’ good” comment on Facebook. We don’t actually invest. It’s the sad truth.

 In general, I would just say enjoy your letter conversations and face-to-face endeavors. We take those things for granted these days and it should be cherished by as many generations as possible.