Letters and Emails February 3, 2009

The two people of influence I chose to write to are my Mom and Coach Ben Nary, My swimming coach from high school. I wrote to my mom using email, and wrote to Coach Ben using snail mail. I made this decision partially based on how these two people of influence use technology. My mom is always emailing me or text messaging me; in fact, she sometimes emails me off her phone. Coach Ben rarely ever uses email, since he says he prefers to communicate via telephone, or better yet in person.

Coach Ben was an instrumental figure in my life since I joined the swim team in 7^th grade. When I injured my foot during my junior year, I thought I was done with swimming forever. Coach Ben took extra time before and after regular practices to help me with my physical therapy and give me specialized workouts so that I would be able to keep up with the rest of my team. With his help, I was able to compete in the regional championships for swimming two months after I was injured. He taught me about perseverance, and I never got the chance to truly express my gratitude to him, so I decided to take this opportunity to thank him.

I chose to write to my Mom because she is just an amazing person. She’s been there for me through everything, and I wanted to thank her for always being there to support me thru thick and thin.

The letter I wrote to my coach long-hand was a page long, while the letter I wrote to my mom turned out to be two pages long when printed. I found that typing on the computer was a lot easier than writing long-hand. When writing long-hand, I was constantly thinking about what I was doing so that I wouldn’t make a mistake. However, with the email, I was able to type what was on my mind, and simply delete it or edit it if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say. I expected that the letter to my coach would be longer, since I haven’t talked to him since I graduated, and the letter to my mom would be shorter since I talk to her almost every day, but I found it a lot easier to express myself over email.

Despite the fact that I wrote the letters via two different methods (snail-mail and email), there were not many differences between the language and tone I used in either message.  Because I know both these peoples on a personal level, I didn’t have to make either letter too formal.  I was able to write in a conversational manner, which allowed me to express myself accurately.  However, I did use proper grammar and spelling in both letters.  This was a little difficult for the email, as I sometimes caught myself doing things that I usually do when emailing, such as writing the letter ‘u’ instead of the word ‘you’.  My mom responded by sending me a short email that said “thanks, love you” and called me the next day to thank me.  I still haven’t heard anything back from my coach, but this is most likely because I sent his letter via snail-mail, and so he probably only just received it.  Also, I know he is very busy coaching, so he probably doesn’t have much time to sit down and write out a letter long-hand. However, I do hope to hear from him eventually.

In this week’s reading in Wood and Smith, the authors discuss social presence theory. However, I think that people don’t always take these cues as to which media is most appropriate, and instead use whatever means of communication is most convenient. We tend to use internet communication, especially email, all too often, even when another means of communication, such as a long-hand letter or phone call, may be more appropriate. I think people in society need to be more aware of social context cues in choosing their means of communication.

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