Facebook – what happened to email?
Most people are on-line now-a-days, some more than others. But I guess that is the problem. The people that are on-line all the time expect everybody else to be on-line as much as they are. Everybody is different. Some people use the internet mostly for shopping, some mostly to stay in touch with their friends, and for the people that work with on-line stores or applications the internet is their life. The internet has given us a freedom that we didn’t know before.
Facebook is one of the hot internet places that many people are hooked on. I like it myself, but I honestly have become a little annoyed with the way the people use it. In the last couple of months I have found out that friends have moved or been pregnant and given birth, but I never received an email or letter letting me know about these big changes in their lives. It has been a big shock for me to discover that multiple of my friends believe that everybody is as much on Facebook as they are. They post their happy news there and don’t think about all the other people that are either not on Facebook or don’t check it daily that they might want to join in the celebration of the new life growing in their stomach or the wonderful new house they bought in another city.
Facebook has given us a place to share great news and give easy access for updates that is going on in our lives. But whatever happened to the ‘good old’ email communications? Sending out a card or letter with snail-mail is a lot of work that people might not have time for, but an email is almost the same amount of work than posting it on Facebook. I personally have multiple friends that are not on Facebook, which means that all the news posted there will never reach them.
Many of us are busy parents that do not have time to check Facebook every day or week, which means that you miss out on all the big events happening in our friends’ lives. This morning I received an email from a friend of mine from Denmark responding to my congratulations mail for her daughters’ birthday. She told me that she just gave birth. I didn’t even know that she was pregnant!!! I am pretty good in keeping up with my friends around the world, so I have to admit that I was a little hurt when hearing such big life changing things have only been posted on Facebook.
As mentioned before, the internet has given us a lot of freedom, but has it started to make people less in touch with others personally? Posting things on the web about your life is great and fun for many to read, but what about the whole personal communications you get through email, where you can answer each others questions?