Love/Hate

I use MSN almost daily. I like it –most of the time. It has been a wonderful tool for staying in contact with friends and family. But it is not perfect, I need to again state my issues with it (even if its just for myself). My "hatred" is more a deep frustration with the communication flaws it allows or encourages:

-Good communication is more then just words. Its signs, gestures, voice tone, inflection. How many different ways can you say "great"? Something is always lost in typed messages, which is a head start of misunderstandings.

-Crash course in compartmentalizing. Thinking of the times when there are three or more conversations on the go. Your jumping back and forth in talks on a wide range of topic. One is high hearted joking, another personal relationships, another resent event, and still another about God and spiritual thoughts. It can be emotionally confusing.

-So easy to ignore people. So easy not to listen. We are distracted and multitasking. It is allowing selfishness.

-I can say almost anything on MSN to almost anyone. I don’t think I’m alone in that trait. Can create a few different problems the biggest being. We have false sense of intimacy and it teaches us to be impersonal by just talk to "the computer".

-Seems you only have two options on MSN a very short conversation that doesn’t go past how are you or something deep. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. Which is sad when you just want to hang out. I miss just hanging out with good friends doing stuff like euchre, watching movies, or going for coffee just being together.

MSN is no substitute for real people.

Comments

matthew said…
I agree with everything on your list. My biggest pet peave is when someone starts talking about something, but then they
Jo said…
oh elizabeth, ditto ditto ditto. this is why i'm not on msn much. it's too much of a tease. :( give me real relationships, or give me death.
MacP said…
I have to say that Matthew's comment made me laugh. Hahaha(with much emphasis, knee slaping, and eyes tearing)