When I got home on Thursday, I found a letter from Camii in my mailbox. The arrival of these letters is always a highlight of my day. I get to catch up on all the latest news and gossip from her part of the world and doodles are often involved. It's great. Even though I've only known her in person for a few months, we've been close friends for years, almost solely through letters.
So, ladies and gents, here's my question: In this age of online dating, e-mail, and blogs, do you think that (all issues of pretending to be someone else aside) sometimes writing allows us to be more honest (whether by a little or a lot) than we are in reality?
3 comments:
I know I've heard other people say so. That you can say in letters things you couldn't face to face.
I know my own wit and eloquence hikes up some notches when I write or type things down, so I have more boldness, possibly, when I'm writing e-mails. But I like honesty, I like speaking my mind, so usually you'll hear mostly the same things from me in person as in e-mails and letters and IMs and missives and court summons and royal summons and prime dictates and blogs and letters to no one/everyone and all the other written thingies that go "kablooie" out of my head. I might use more words when I writing things down, though, because no one can interupt me.
Hee hee. Mine is an evil laugh.
I don't know. I think I edit a lot more in my "written" correspondence. A habit I picked up in Corporate America. I saw too many people dash off heated missives. They may have been honest, but they also could be forwarded to management or HR and, thus, come back to bite the author. So I may write exactly what I feel, save the draft, then edit like mad before sending. Not lying, but using that good old thing called tact.
I've been more bold online than I would be in person, but I'm more careful about phrasing my words when I'm writing online (versus speaking).
In-person quickness to respond has gotten me in trouble before, both in sounding like an idiot and sounding like a bitch.
There's nothing that will replace actual spoken words (all that awesome intonation crap), but physically writing (instead of typing) letters is the closest second I can think of.
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