Where Have Letters Gone?
By DAVID ZOPPETTI
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手紙はどこに行ってしまったのか?
手紙はどこに行ってしまったのか?
電子メールによる通信が便利になるにつれて
現実社会の接点をだんだん失い
仮想世界に閉じこもる人が増えたのではないか。
筆者自身、電子メールが好きで
頻繁に利用してはいるのだが…。
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I just love the thrill of finding letters waiting for me in my mailbox. I
enjoy weighing envelopes of different shapes and sizes on the palm of my
hand and marvel at the sight of colorful stamps and foreign addresses. And
there is always the refreshment provided by an occasional exotic
postcard.
But recently, checking my mail has become a frustrating experience. I'm not
receiving any letters anymore, just heaps of unwanted publicity that
ranges from pizza or sushi delivery ads to unwanted porn leaflets.
So I wonder. Have I lost all of my friends? Are people not writing to me
anymore? The answer is, not exactly. People are still writing, but in a
different way. It is simply that the tactile and visual pleasure of
receiving letters has been replaced by the "You've Got Mail" syndrome.
Yes, e-mail is revolutionizing communication. It is cheap, fast and
practical. You can send out messages at any time, you don't have to walk to
the post office with stacks of letters, and replies come back at lightning
speed. The cyberworld has brought us closer together and seems to have reduced the size of the planet to that of a golf ball.
Projects involving e-mail and the Internet as an educational tool are
booming worldwide. Chat sites, where people can make friends easily and
converse with them in "real time" from the coziness of their own room
are more and more popular. You can shop on the Internet, invest in the stock market, order theater or opera tickets, and do a myriad of other things —
enough to boggle the imagination.
But this magic tool has its negative sides as well. Put in the wrong
hands, it can turn into a Pandora's box of unexpected problems.
Cybercrimes are increasing at the same speed as the popularity of the
medium. They go from the simple, unwanted nuisance e-mail, to stalkers,
sexual harassers and con artists, but also include all kinds of
mischievous fraud schemes.
But my biggest concern is that this new "virtual world" might gradually
be alienating us from the real one we live in.
The time students spend in front of their screens is that much less time
spent discovering nature and the outside world. The hours spent chit-chatting
with e-mail friends is that much less time spent meeting people and learning
how to relate with them. And I'm probably just a nostalgic fool but I can't help seeing the disappearance of letters from our everyday life as a symbol
of this gradual drifting from real things.
Of course, I know the trend is not about to stop. I am just as addicted
to it as the next man down the street (I often check my e-mail even before
having breakfast!). I just hope that the sensations of convenience,
immediacy and thrill provided by this new gadget won't estrange us
totally from contact and communication in the real world.
Shukan ST: Nov. 19, 1999
(C) All rights reserved
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