I’ve blathered a lot about blogging so far, but I’ve also noticed that in the last month or two, I’ve been narrowcasting my communications a little more lately. I’ve been drawn to the phone. And videochat. And personal emails (amazing!). And I’ve had some good chat exchanges, both on Facebook Messenger and text (which I sort of hate, but is more tolerable now that there is a Mac app called “Messages” that your iPhone texts come to, where you can type proper responses on proper keyboards with a properly sized screen). I might even write a letter or two before all is said and done.

It’s interesting. I used to pour my heart out into letters with a few friends in particular. It started with my nerd camp girlfriend, Sarah, when I was 14, and I had other correspondents over the years who I had less lengthy correspondences with, but it’s amazing how before there was Facebook or blogging, a lot of the same using words to figure out of how you felt about things happened one on one, instead of for a faceless audience where you just kinda “throw it out there to the world”. The new way can be exhilarating, especially when it works, and someone volleys something back. But there’s still something wonderful about giving something to someone with them and only them in mind, and getting something from someone who was thinking of you with every word they shared. There’s something about the medium itself that are wonderful messages, too: “I took the time to sit down and write this to you; I think you are worth the time; I care about you; I think you will understand this about me; I understood that thing you wrote in your last letter and here is my long, considered response.”

I should have written this in a letter to someone!