Comments on: Tweeting from the Grave

By: Molly Holtman

Molly Holtman — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:27:28 +0000

So, full disclosure, my friend’s husband founded Sunnygram. I agree with Hamish that they will probably do quite well for a while. However, built in obsolescence? Only if they don’t evolve the media between which they are “translating.” For example, maybe they could compile “best of” Tweets or Facebook photos and status updates and send them in an old-fashioned e-mail. That might appeal to my mom and her friends.

By: Hamish

Hamish — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:29:52 +0000

That’s funny about Sunnygram – I had that exact same idea a while back! That service will probably do quite well for a while – a lot of the older generation is still romantic about the concept of letter writing but dismissive of email as trite. Your generation, Ali, don’t see the difference. My generation (call it “W”, somewhere before “X”) is in the middle – old enough to understand our parents’ desire for a hard copy letter, young enough not to be too bothered with them ourselves, old enough to be struggling a bit with the point of tweeting (confession: I have a twitter account, posted a grand total of 1 tweet i think).

But to the point of your post, Sunnygram definitely looks like a service with inbuilt obsolescence. Neither my generation nor yours will see any point writing anything out longhand, putting in an envelope, sticking a stamp on it, and taking it to a mailbox. Because really, if you take away the nostalgia, what on earth is the point?

By: Tim Holmes

Tim Holmes — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:09:47 +0000

Good question, Matt (and good post, Ali). While I don’t think these acronyms decrease intelligence, I do think the abbreviations tend to greatly reduce the richness of language, paring things down to simple concepts, quickly and easily digested while moving on to the next. It’s less effort.

Well, back to my rocking chair CRK CRK CRK

By: Matt P.

Matt P. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:48:16 +0000

Very interesting read. I definitely think the age of the internet is causing the slow death of arts like language, writing and reading. It seems that there are fewer and fewer people these days that can produce any legible piece of prose, read a book let alone a news article that is more than 3 paragraphs, or can go more than 4 hours without being connected to the internet in some way.

When I first started in PR we used to laugh at our tech clients who seemed to speak a different language with all the acronyms they use, but it made sense for them to have acronyms because the names of their products and services were complicated and long. I find it hard to find a reason to shorten conversations with my friends and family to simple acronyms like LOL, LMAO, TTYL, BRB, YT, etc.

Bottom Line: is this decreasing our intelligence? Or is it just altering it?

By: Bill D.

Bill D. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:43:33 +0000

Interesting post. Your parents haven’t given up the new-fangled technology from their youth – the television – in their older, slower age, have they? And our grandparents haven’t given up the telephone. We may not be facebooking or twittering per se at 60, but we’ll be definitely be online almost all the time — just like we are now — with the exception of those times when we exhibit extreme will power. I’m just glad I’m not part of the next generation, “Gen Z (?),” which will undoubtely have the internet installed directly into their cerebral cortices, and I bet it’ll seem completely normal to them too.