One of things I've noticed lately is how difficult it is to stay in touch. Well, not really staying in touch, but staying on top of which tools to use to stay in touch. As communication methods increase, different people migrate to different avenues and in order to talk to them, I usually have to use whatever tool they prefer.
With each new tool, website, or social network staying in touch gets more complicated.
For example, I have family members I can only reach via phone, friends I only talk to via email, Twitter friends, Facebook friends, organizations I follow only on MySpace, a boss who only reads my office reports if they are printed out, and folks I text on a regular basis.
As to be expected, the use of communication tools often varies on generation. Younger friends, family members, peers, other people in my age bracket or younger tend to be more online. I don't expect my grandfolks to be on Twitter any time soon.
Then there is the frequency of how often people check their communication platform. Although almost everyone has email, that's doesn't mean they check it. Same with voice mail.
Of course I make things exponentially more difficult by having multiple accounts on many of these platforms. I have four personal email addresses (I've only dropped two since I started emailing in 1996), four work email address on various servers and networks, two Twitter accounts, two MySpace accounts, and one Facebook account. And my phone, which has a Facebook and a Twitter app.
All I am missing is the firepit to send smoke signals.
Communication tools have also vastly changed the dating game. I remember back when an hour long conversation meant girl and I may have a few things in common. In the last two years, I haven't dated a woman who didn't rely heavily on text messaging. I think the days of the hour-long phone call are long gone. I was getting good at that.
Calling now seems awkward. Like I have to really know someone first or they have to be expecting my call. Or maybe I have to text to let them know I am going to call.
Apparently, I am supposed to text a woman a lot sooner than I was supposed to call. There used to be a 24-hour rule on calling. Not that I was that great at following that, but do I text first now? What is the "correct" time I should wait before texting?
The last thing I want is to be this guy:
One of these days, I going to go Thoreau and be reachable only through mailed postage. Either that, or I am going to end up like the bad guy in Wes Craven's Shocker and live in the grid.
