Instant messaging applications

Since the Internet and email as a means of text communication were established for commercial use (the early 1990s), there have been several tools that have emerged to enable instant messaging, or what is better known as chat. With the emergence of smartphones in the mid-2000s, these instant messaging tools have become ubiquitous. It is easy to observe how every traveler is utterly focused on her/his terminal chatting with one of her/his contacts on some very important topic when one takes public transport.

Nexus 4

Before this revolution, the most commonly used system for written communication was the traditional letter. I belong to a generation that has used both systems. Although both methods coexist today, it is crystal clear that these new tools have greatly modified the way we interact with each other. But, has this been for the good?

I reckon that as happens with all technological improvements, in some matters it has been for the good, and in others, it hasn’t. From my point of view, lovers who spend the day today sending messages to each other at every moment do not love one another more than those who were exchanging letters 30 or 40 years ago.

Letter & envelope

Today we are overwhelmed by the huge amount of information that we share. As there is so much information, we may end up often talking about things that do not really matter. Talking about unimportant things is necessary too, although I believe that what is not demanded at all is to abuse of this kind of communication. In my opinion, I think we have lost a little bit of the essentials of communication, which is to convey ideas or feelings.