At the tender age of thirteen, I can remember talking to whatever boy I happened to be swooning over that particular week -- a reddening ear pressed tightly to my parents' high tech cordless telephone, tying up the lines for hours and thinking, believing, wishing all the while that if I squeezed the phone hard enough, pressed it tight enough to my lobe, he and I would be welded together for all eternity.
"Gee wiz," I remember thinking, (because we kids rolled with Howdy Doody in the mid-nineties), "I sure do wish we could be having this conversation face-to-face!"
Does anybody remember the "land-line"? The days of being unreachable for hours spent outside of the home? The days of making plans the night before, meeting at said location and trusting the rest to...? Good fortune? The gods? These days, God forbid you forget your cell phone when on the way to meet someone for coffee -- what if you can't find them? What if their car breaks down? What if she dyed her hair and you no longer recognize her even though you had coffee at this same local last week and everything worked out just dandy despite no actual usage of the cellular apparatus? What then? What if? What now?
These days I find myself using email and text messaging more than any other form of communication -- and really, so many misunderstandings could take place here! Beware technology friendly users! If you are joking, make good use of exclamation points, smiley faces and "hahas", because trust me, the receiver of said jokes do not hear the subtleties in your tone, the under the breath chuckle, the wink of an eye or the raise of an eyebrow.
And believe me, if you do not include such exclamations of humor, you will be taken seriously and you will offend the masses. Trust me. It's a whole new world out there.
:)
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