The Reason Old People Must Die
Friday, 18 June 2010
In followup to Crabby Old Lady's post yesterday:
Remember when the only way there was to write letters to one another was snailmail? It had been that way for nearly six centuries until, about 20 years ago, email supplanted it. And now – already - email has been proclaimed dead.
As one of the featured speakers at the Consumer 360 Conference in Las Vegas earlier this week, it was Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandburg who announced that email is “probably going away.”
She bases her prediction on the fact that only 11 percent of present-day teenagers use email daily. The other 89 percent prefer texting and social networking websites (i.e. Facebook, of course) and as Sandburg astutely points out, what those teenagers are doing today, they will carry with them into adulthood and the workplace.
If you are interested, here is the video of Ms. Sandburg. Unless you care deeply about (sarcasm alert!) how wonderful Facebook is, you can stop watching after 45 seconds. The rest of the 5:03 minutes is an extended Facebook commercial.
I agree with Sandburg about the approaching death of email and I am profoundly sorry about it for a mix of reasons.
I like how easy it is to save email the way I once saved (and still have) snailmail letters from friends and relatives. That is difficult on Facebook.
I like receiving long, chatty emails from close friends who live far away. Facebook and texting are quick-hit means of passing on one small bit of information; they are unsuited to thought or rumination.
Like me, most people with whom I email feel obligated to write in whole words and sentences. I like that. I don't like abbreviated text language.
I like that my email lands in a software program and is stored in directories on my computer, not in cyberspace as it is on Facebook.
Much is being been made these days about the end of private software and moving every computer-ish thing we do online, “in the cloud.” Here are my questions: What if the power goes out? What if the ISP is down? What if the third-party servers where my stuff is stored are breached or fail?
I want my email and all other documents on my own hard drive, not one owned by a giant corporation; Google and Apple are no more trustworthy than Goldman Sachs and BP.
There are more reasons I'm sorry email is fading, but you get the idea; I like email and all that goes with it. I don't want to change the method of my online communication. It suits the way my mind works; Facebook and texting do not. Nor do they fit with most elder minds or ways of doing things.
Yesterday in this space, Crabby Old Lady had some sharp words for those researchers and others who want to extend human life indefinitely. It is Crabby's and my own contention that the the current global population is already insupportable and eliminating death would kill the planet.
That is the most important reason to abandon the pursuit of life extension research. But the coming demise of email is another good reason or, rather, one small example among many of the need for death: progress would forever be hindered if old people didn't get out of the way so the young can move forward.
Without death, there is no evolution – biological and social. In five or ten years, those teenagers who now disdain email will be conducting their careers on Facebook or its equivalent in txt lang while the even younger kids coming up behind them in high school will have moved on to the next new thing or at least several refinements of current practice.
And that is as it should be whether I like it or not - without forward movement, there is only stagnation. Already, a couple of younger friends have told me to contact them via their Facebook and LinkedIn pages because they rarely check their email.
So I will dip into Facebook and its ilk when forced to, but at my age, I can continue to use email. It will not disappear as completely as snailmail has before I die – which we all must do to help make way for the future – i.e. our children and grandchildren and so on down the ages. Just not too soon.
At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Nancy Leitz: Andrew's Eulogy
I agree with you Ronni, that we cannot stop change or the evolution of the culture. But I don't think we have to get out of the way. I haven't explored Facebook, though I've felt the loss of contact with the young people in my life. But, if Facebook truly doesn't allow thoughtful and extended exchanges, perhaps email will come to be used more as the young become adult and have more thoughtful insights to share. So we can continue to model that way of communicating for their benefit.
Posted by: Polly Jordan | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 05:48 AM
I couldn't agree more.
We are taught to take turns, and it's
the kids turn.
I'm gladly off the dance floor, it was
fun, but I'm too old keep up.
I'll just go sit in the corner and
watch for awhile, then quietly, and hopefully peacefully exit stage left.
Posted by: liloldme | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 06:05 AM
Tried FB, but then after all the details about how they used private information sent me quickly to the dump it process.
I do miss the photos and videos of my grandkids. The daughters all use FB, and though I've asked to receive those cute little photos through email, I've only received one. They won't take the time. It's FB or nothing.
I think businesses will continue to use email because it conforms well to that application, but who knows?
Posted by: cowtownpattie | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 06:18 AM
I also prefer email for the reasons you mentioned. I just don't have enough friends, who text or who care to communicate with me all day long, for me to get into that. I might become a hermit!
Posted by: Rain | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 06:19 AM
I enjoy Facebook, email and snail mail. Chatting and texting are truncated forms of communication. Language fully let out to run and play is a wonderful invention.
Mortality has always been part of the deal here on Earth. Death approaches sooner or later. How to greet that? In my case, spiritual practice.
I'm more concerned about degradation of the natural and cultural environment than with tech changes, though of course there are connections. All connected. What a period of time to be alive!
Posted by: Gaea Yudron | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 06:58 AM
I utilize all forms of communications even still buying physical greeting cards :-))I like to stay in the game, keep current and I have found it has opened new avenues with some younger generations...I have a facebook page and all ages of friends and family send me posts. I, don't allow any of this to stop me from physical contact, phone calls, letter writing, all the "old"ways
Posted by: kate | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 07:09 AM
Email is my choice as well, although I do still send letters and notes to friends. It seems snailmail is dying out and the thrill of getting something in the mailbox that's not a bill or an advertisement will be gone with it. And I'll miss the friendly mail carriers I've gotten to know in my retirement. Still, the world that brought me into young womanhood no longer exists and that's the way of it. Some of my grandkids are home schooled, hands on and by computer, with live group instruction in the elementary grades. These are amazing times, I just just hope we can pull our heads out of our nether regions and save enough of this world that our grandkids can live healthily in it.
Posted by: Celia | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 07:14 AM
It was also said that the desktop pc was dead. It's not. Email will not disappear and it's because of all the reasons you noted. But Facebook (or a more ambitious competitor) is here to stay as well. And FB privacy issues are easily managed if the users will only read the directions. Then again, privacy on the internet is an illusion. Always has been. You want privacy? Never connect. I searched for my cousin for years via Google...turned out that she has never owned a computer. Cloud computing will only get better and I want my mail and documents protected on a redundant array of servers rather than on my pc, subject to the whims of my local power company. But, I've always been an early adopter and although I will be 70 soon, I don't intend to change. The past is past and the future always beckons.
Posted by: Steven | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 07:37 AM
I think snail mail is nearing it's expiration. My cousin does not use a computer and I find that I put off writing him for months, while I answer most e-mail within 24 hours.
Will this happen to e-mail as well? I doubt it. Sometimes you need to write whole paragraphs to convey all you want to say. That will never change.
Posted by: Darlene | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 08:07 AM
I'm not tired enough to quit yet, but I sure aim to be comfortable until I do die. Side effects from life extension research might help us all do that.
Email. I get little now. I used to get a hundred or so a day. I ran an email list for a couple of years, and during that time my ISP did die. Life was not good. The shrinking of email use devolves also as those who still use lists grow fewer. My email from these is down to maybe one a day. My friends have moved to Facebook, my grandchildren use Facebook, and even the most stalwart of bloggers, John Bailey, has now devolved to Twitter. Perhaps, in the end, we will all be reduced to seventeen syllables an entry.
Posted by: Mage B | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 08:56 AM
Farewell sticky stamps,
e-mail, landlines, blue air mail.
My ice floe is here.
Posted by: mary jamison | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 10:36 AM
I neither tweet nor text, although I do keep note of what my son is up to via his Twitter account. I do post on Facebook once in a while, but I mostly use it to keep up with what various friends are posting. My emails, too have dwindled, but so have a many facets of my life. I just go with what works for me. That's one of the perks of being an elder; I really don't have to struggle to keep up a tiring pace. I'm on that downward turn of the wheel of life, and I'm for coasting and enjoying the ride as much as possible.
While I use the internet a lot, it's mostly to blog and read blogs and to find new blogs that stir my creativity and curiosity.
Posted by: Elaine of Kalilily | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 10:53 AM
I use g-mail, which is in the "cloud" anyway. And Facebook, which enables me to keep track of what younger friends and relatives are up to.
I'm not very sentimental and hope upon my demise to leave very few records of my existence behind me
Posted by: Hattie | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 11:13 AM
Of course, Facebook will be replaced by whatever comes next and all I can say is RIP (LOL!).
Posted by: Paula | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 11:20 AM
At the moment - I want no part of Facebook. My children and older grandchildren are all of part of that.
I agree with "Rain".
Posted by: ernestine | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 12:36 PM
I've only recently gained an appreciation for texting. Keyboarding on my iphone is difficult for this touch typist, but it is a sure way to get a quick response from children and grandchildren when a matter needs to be clarified or plans made.
I do like Facebook for quick and easy communication and sharing with family and friends. It's a way to tune in to "the dailies" which otherwise slip by and are lost. And like many have reconnected with long lost friends. @Cowtownpattie - you can pick up photos from Facebook. I have some wonderful photos that my son has posted on his Facebook page.
But I express myself best by the written word and I've found email to be a very satisfying way to communicate the real stuff. I'm not going to give it up no how no way.
Posted by: Brenda Verbeck | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 12:43 PM
Although I tried FB, I got bored with it and deleted my account. I prefer Twitter, and follow some people (including a 104-year-old woman from England) but seldom tweet. Still use e-mail. And I create cards using my photos, and postal-mail them. At least we have a variety of ways to communicate ... pick and choose.
Posted by: SuzyR | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 12:51 PM
Like others, I tried FB and failed. So, in a moment of recklessness, I just quit. Please do keep your email exchanges going. It works in ways FB and Twitter never will work.
Posted by: lilalia | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 02:50 PM
I have recently had communications with a person who writes only in texting shortcuts. She sent me a short story in texting format, I thought she had something probably worse than dyslexia. Punctuation did not exist. I'm certain she is incapable of expressing a complex thought. Can you think in a complex way if you can't write it? Her mind seemed to be have even less depth than Power Point presentations. I've been disturbed by this for about ten days now.
Posted by: June Calender | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 04:59 PM
Like SuzyR, I like to think that we'll have a choice of how to communicate. I'm still on Facebook, but it's not my first choice. Same with Twitter although it's fun occasionally. Who knows? Maybe some day after TGB generations are long gone, one of our descendants will get bored with text messaging and rediscover writing. I mean actual writing, as in letters and stories using full words and complete sentences. Because we need to save every tree we can, I'm in favor of email, although I still like to receive what is now very rare--a personal letter. Do I want to conduct my life on Facebook? Not so much.
Posted by: Elizabeth Rogers | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 07:24 PM
I seldom write letters anymore, but do like to send real cards, and occasionally call relatives who don't own a computer. (That would be inconceivable to me.) I still use e-mail and always will, because sometimes you need to express complete thoughts. But I also enjoy Facebook--it's the best way to keep in touch with extended family all over the country. A variety works for me.
Posted by: joni | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 07:24 PM
I am so grateful to Twitter as I keep track of my estranged daughter that way and I love FB, mainly to see what the young 'uns are up to and give burps (I call updates that!) about my life. Love the old photos and how archives are becoming a huge part of FB. I know it's cloud which scares me but I do copy pics on my HD>
And I do write the odd letter and send cards in the mail. I love receiving snail mail.
And I email my childhood friend (friends for 60 years)as she does me. Every single day.
XO
WWW
Posted by: wisewebwoman | Friday, 18 June 2010 at 09:13 PM
I have never been much of a letter writer and was grateful when I discovered email, as it allowed me to keep in touch with people without expanding into long sentences ;)
I have grown to like twitter, because even if sometimes 140 characters IS short, it allows me to keep track of quite a bit of stuff, without having to write much myself. I had blogs for a long time, but I guess I am totally burnt out in that respect. I hardly write snail mail any more, except for condolences, because in this country it isn't done otherwise.
As for FB, I sort of like it, it lets me keep track of what some of my former students do, and of what some of my faraway friends are up to.
I think there's room for all that. Some of my friends still write snail mail and I do like reading their letters, even if I only reply by mail... or not at all.
Posted by: Claude | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 03:52 AM
They have also said, at times, that the novel is dead but people keep writing and publishing them.
I used to write long detailed snail mail letters and in fact "my" first book (actually written by myself and two college friends and published by Avon Books years ago) was a book of our letters to each other during a six month period. We had to cut pages and pages from the original letters they were so long.
Now however, I rarely write a snail mail letter. Also, I dont like long emails either to read or write. FB holds a small amusement quality. Actually my favorite communication tool of the moment is my blog.
Posted by: suki | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 04:41 AM
Teenagers today would have to know how to write and spell if they were to use email. Huh. I tried facebook and didn't care for it. Just me.
Posted by: Technobabe | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 05:25 AM
I, and I think my generation, sought connection in the words Be-Here-Now. To me that means to be 100% per cent conscious of the people and surroundings of my immediate life experience.
My college students tell me that continually texting and tweeting makes them "feel connected."
To me, the slogan for this might be "Be Everywhere Now."
There certainly is a philosophical or experiential generational difference here.
Posted by: TropiGal | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 10:02 AM
I turned away from Facebook originally. I think I even blogged about it, as I recall in Web 2.0 exercise. In the end though it became not about Facebook but about my hanging on to concerns about loosing my privacy and what I thought at the time was control over my cyber-life (which has become a slippery slope that I - and many others - have since surrendered to). Now I enjoy a constant communication with people like my children and grandchildren that I would not have at all, save for the Facebook technology.
All of the creating and destroying in a constant storm of technology reminds me that what is truly annoying is having to make all the choices about it. I find myself forced into a situation where I have to constantly re-evaluate where I stand in cyberspace; what are my intentions and what tools are best suited to my happiness. It's a friggin' minefield for the most part and really hard to keep a solid bearing when a new concept reaches a tipping point and supplants something I've worked into my daily regimen.
Having said that, I have to admit that it keeps me sharp to pay attention and the overall benefits far out-way the losses. The way I see it, I haven't really lost a damn thing. I can write a letter and mail it still...and I do, when I'm inclined. I can send an email or post a note on Facebook for some needed pictures of my Granddaughter (cyber-nagging); I can burn a dvd of pictures for my sister who doesn't have a computer but she has a TV and a player - I mail it to her; I can blog and exercise my right to speak my peace and feel better for it; I can publish a newsletter on my computer and snail mail it to people I met before there was even any computers as part of the conversation.
Perhaps the best thing for elders, in my opinion, is that we can and have done it all. We have the experience of making these choices and not because it was a shiny object dangling in front of us but because we can recognize a product for it's practical application to all REAL lives...the lives we have been living a lot longer than the innovators, in most cases. Therefore, the way I see it...we loose nothing with these changes because we can choose to bow out, too, and be fine with that. In fact, with the trajectory and breadth of our experience over time... we win!
Posted by: Cile | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 11:15 AM
Like wonderful music, the scent of paper, ink, assortment of fountain pens, and postage stamps today add to my larder as food for my soul. Email is wonderful, and helped me further my travels and relationships with friends and colleagues met on life's journey but it lacks substance, at time; often very flat, it still provides for a quick message, or response.
The social websites, being fraught with Trojans, viruses, and privacy invasion have far too many variables than I am now willing to tolerate. Uploading photos of minors in this era is not what I could do, understanding about digitalization and compression and what may happen to such photos.
So, having done my "job" now, and savoring the beauty of simplicity there is time to affect my surroundings with my self - deliberate caring and sharing.
Posted by: ElderSpeak | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 12:47 PM
Long posts are possible under the "NOTES" tab on Facebook. Saving them; however is far more difficult than with email. Posts and emails that I want to save for longer periods I copy and paste into WORD documents.
Posted by: Jami Hart | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 03:35 PM
Interesting that Gaea is the only one who picked up on the 'fear of death' theme. As she said, "Mortality has always been part of the deal here on Earth." And part of the wisdom of elders is the full acceptance of that fact.
However, the wisdom of elders is also about seeing the 'big picture' rather than simply embracing all new technology uncritically and acclaiming so-called 'progress' for its own sake.
One of the functions of elders in traditional, tribal societies has always been to balance out the impetuousness of youth. The elders are the ones who remember the every-100-years flood and advise against building too close to the river. Theirs is the longer view. We need both the enthusiasm of youth and the wisdom of elders to keep things in balance, just as we need both science and spiritual wisdom.
In our science-led,youth-obsessed culture, in which many young people see elders as a waste of space, elder wisdom has been sidelined and a lot of the ecological and social imbalance we are experiencing on Earth right now results from that.
Indigenous elders, for example, warned of the dangers of oil extraction. They said the oil was the blood of Mother Earth. Have you noticed the colour of the oil that's floating on the Gulf?
Posted by: Marian Van Eyk McCain | Tuesday, 22 June 2010 at 03:07 AM
Very interesting post. My basic philosophy is whatever works for you...that is great. I loved having pen pals when I was a girl and wish I could get one today from Israel - someone who likes to write letters, in Hebrew. I may do some research on that...
Posted by: Sheila Silver Halet | Tuesday, 22 June 2010 at 11:28 AM
I can't imagine a world without email. Well, a personal world, maybe. But the work world? The business world? Especially in America where everybody sues everybody else. Won't they have to keep track of the 'paper trails' of things anymore? I mean, how can they do that with SMS?
Like you, though, I can't imagine it will go away in my lifetime, as much as that FB lady might want it to.
Posted by: Nikki | Sunday, 04 July 2010 at 01:37 PM