Golden Age of letters 2.0
I read over 4,000 emails in the last year. This is not an exaggeration. Counting them up I came up with a little of 4,300 email I that I opened and spent more them 5 seconds looking at. That is 10-15 a day based on workdays. Over the last 7-8 years the number of emails has been fairly constant. Before that the number of email I received was much less. Therefore, add all this up, if I had to guess my life time email load is about 35,000 - 40,000. In the last year I have sent around 1,700 emails. That is a rough estimate of 15,000 life time.
Back in high school we watched a movie called Future Shook. The premise was that growth of technology would isolate people from one another. I can order a pizza without talking to a human. This leads to the idea that human interaction is some how limited by technology. My human communication load is increasing not decreasing. I spend less time talking to people face to face, but much more time writing to them.
Before the phone or telegraph, advances in transportation brought about what is called the golden age of letters. A time when sending letter was an art. Winston Churchill was an infamous letter writer. He wrote letters to his wife daily, even though they lived in the same house and shared a bed. Today K and I write quick notes to each other during the day.
Technology has once again brought about an age of letters. Admittedly the art is lacking, but think about it. We are just starting this age. The prose of our language is still adjusting to the new media. One day, blogging, email and may be even text messaging will be regarded as art. Call it the second golden age of letters. Out of 15,000 attempts 1 or 2 must be art.