Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Closer or Further Apart


Is the increase in email usage bringing us closer together or pulling us further apart? I do not think there is a simple answer to that question, but I thought I would share an example of how it brings us closer together.

I have a cousin who was born deaf and has difficulty speaking; communication with my cousin has always been difficult and very frustrating for her and me because I could not always understand what she was trying to tell me. Our conversations were always very short and on the surface. I use to know a little bit of sign language but since she has moved away, I have lost what skills I use to possess.

After she moved away, she would call me with an especially designed service called Telerelay. If you have ever used the Telerelay service available you already know that it is less than ideal. An operator acts as a translator, so I would have to speak with the operator as if that person were my cousin, the operator would then type what I said and the message would be relayed to my cousin. I found having an operator as a translator a little awkward, so with the birth of email came an awesome method of communication for my cousin and I. Presently, we can actually have in-depth “conversations” that we have never had the luxury of before, so for all the critics, here is one indisputable example of how email can bring us closer together.

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