A Lost Art

Remember the thrill of opening your mailbox (the one physically attached to your house) and seeing a slightly yellowed, partly bent envelope looking up at you with your name on it? An envelope that didn't have a clear window on it telling you it's a bill. An envelope with actual postage, not that pre-paid postage that billing companies use. Remember what that felt like? Yeah, I don't either really. It's remarkable really. We've drifted from that time when letters were the only way to write to each other. After dropping an envelope into the mailbox you could wait two weeks at best for a response from your penpal. Does anyone do that anymore? Sure I mail packages and presents to my family and loved ones, but does anyone actually have a penpal with whom they physically write letters using pen and paper? I would, really and truly, I would...but I'm too damned impatient now.

Dial-up internet came to Smithers a while after the rest of the world had already gotten used to the phenomenon, but we jumped on the bandwagon and clung on with whiteknuckles. I think I was 12-14 when I got my first email address (because my address was jessw13 and I know that I wasn't 13 at the time). That means I've had email for roughly half of my life, and certainly for the majority of my letter-writing life. I have had penpals. I wrote to a boy named Kirk Cameron in Australia (through a school penpal program in grade 2 or 3), and I wrote to friends in Surrey after we moved. Penpals were neat...and I'm sure they still are neat, I just can't wait for replies anymore.

These days if I send an email, the time it takes for a response directly impacts my mood while reading said email.
The scale looks like this:
1-15 minutes after sending: Excited, happy, and impressed

15-60 minutes after sending: happy and curious

1 hour - 3 hours: reasonably pleased

3 hours - 12 hours: getting impatient

12 hours - 24 hours: wondering what the hold up is

24 hours - 36 hours: questioning the level of commitment from the respondent

36 hours - 48 hours: considering that something awful has happened to the other person.

48 hours + : debating cutting off all ties with this "so called friend".

Unreasonable? Maybe. Obsessive? Absolutely. Harsh? Entirely possible. But that's the way it is. Obviously there are other factors that count in the equation as well. For example, I will consider the person's access to a computer, I will consider the person's work/school schedule, family life, and response track record as well. But the point of the scale is that I like immediate replies. Instant gratification.

So what is better than an instant email? Why, and instant message! In the form of a text! Funny though, I'm not nearly as calculated in waiting for a response to a text message. I'm understanding, gracious even. Because when I send a text I understand that the person I am texting likely has their phone with them and it is interrupting their life in a very insistent manner. I understand that people can't drop what they're doing to respond to my "How r u?" The beauty of texting though is that it usually does garner instant replies, and has greatly helped me to maintain friendships with people who live far away (most of my friends for that matter).

The next step, obviously, is to get a blackberry which will be kept on my person at all times and have access to the internet and emailing capabilities immediately. Then I will be able to check email any minute of any hour as I choose...Though, this may actually have a sharpening impact on my email-response-scale...I may end up alienating friends much faster..but at least it will be with greater efficiency!