I’ve found myself complaining a lot this year about how “kids today” don’t seem to know how to write email—let alone old-fashioned pen- or typewriter-to paper letters—but seem to communicate using instant messenger-type programs or social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. With Reeve in Scotland, this has come especially clear to me: he just won’t write—email messages or letters. At least not to Tim and me.

But now I may be changing my tune. The last few days, I’ve had several occasions where I wasn’t able to talk to Reeve via Skype or on the phone, but, needing to make sure he was OK, sent him short text messages via Skype’s chat function. In each case, he responded immediately, and these “chats” evolved into delightful discussions of a variety of topics, including critiques of YouTube performances we watched “together” (5,000 miles apart) as well as intellectual commentary on other shared informative links (like, well . . . Engrish.com, OK?).

In trying to relay the gist of these “chats” to Tim, I realized that I had the words right in front of me and could share what was said, verbatim. So this new (for me) way of communicating, this amalgam of letter-writing and talking on the phone has the added benefit of coming with a transcript! Something I can print out and sentimentally stash away, along with Reeve’s childhood drawings, cards, and notes from camp. . .

Above: a snippet from a discussion Reeve and I had yesterday regarding a piece of music he’s working on.

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Tags: chat, communication, email, reeve, skype, transcript

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 12:28 pm and is filed under living, momdom, the empty nest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.