Keeping in Touch with Technology

Then is so much discussion now about the generation of  smartphone users and the radical change we have gone through in our communications in the last few years.

For a long time when I came to live in Italy every time my dad's phone bill arrived he would ring up and say that my mum could have flown out to see me, first class, ten times for the amount the phone bill cost. One thing to be thankful to the EU is the low cost of phone bills.

Anyone who has lived away from family and friends knows how important it is to keep in touch. people's attitudes to technology vary. My Romanian friend considers Skype a life saver, every evening she talks and sees her son in Manchester and her daughter in Romania.

I know my dad would have loved it. We would have had him and my mum on our  tablets at every meal, sitting round the table with them propped up on the cereal box. We would have been toasting each other every evening. My mum would have read bed time stories to the children, my dad would have asked if the meal was nutritious enough. On facetime he would probably  peer at me and say  that I was wearing too much make up, my mum would have said that I reminded her of Auntie Betty who never took care of her figure either. In short all the idle conversations that people who care about each have, without all the painful emotion and heart breaking periods of not seeing each other.

My brother, the one you've heard about before, isn't sure about modern technology at all. He has an old-fashioned mobile phone which has six peoples numbers on it. If you send him a text wishing him happy Easter or whatever you might get a reply a week later saying sorry he couldn't find his phone. He prefers talking on a landline sipping a cup of tea and eating a biscuit. the other day he told me he had read an article by the shrink and the Sage in the Financial Times about where all this technology was going.
The gist of it seemed to be what we all know in our hearts anyway. It's great for business and for getting information where it should go in the shortest possible time. Human relations are another matter.
For people that you love already, parents and close family and friends it can only be a wonderful, healing, life enriching link.
For people that have common interests, like bloggers it is a way to get in touch with others that will stimulate and inspire you.

Care and attention are needed as in all areas in life, you must be discerning and prudent as ever all through the ages.

One area where extreme caution is needed is texts or emails between people who you are not sure about. A lot of damage can be done by texts where the tone of voice is absent so you can't really tell how the message is meant.

Once you have had an unpleasant text or email from someone then every time you see their name flash up on your screen you might be overcome with dread. In certain cases you might not even be able to reply.

Relationships need looking after, friendships need nurturing, now with our modern technology it is easier, also easier and quicker to harm, so think before you send a text that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted.


So the rules for modern day technology are the same ones that our mothers told us and their mothers told them..

If you can't write something nice, then don't write nothing

Walls have ears

Eavesdroppers don't hear good of themselves

Keep wise council

Be discerning

Saying sorry never hurt anyone and healed many

Spread goodwill and put kindness in your heart

Don't talk behind people's backs

Friendships need looking after

Well actually some of then I added myself

What are your wise and helpful words for modern technology?