The evolution of communication

Remember having a pen pal? Ever heard of a pen pal? I had several and not just the ones they made you write to in school, I had friends all across the nation that I'd send to and receive letters from. Even remembered in school they used to show us the proper way to write one! Nothing felt better than getting a personal letter in the mail. It's a practice that's all but extinct now. So what were the inventions of communication that led up to how we communicate now? Email

When electronic mail hit the scene it exploded in popularity. Everyone was emailing, even me. I loved it because it saved me the price of a stamp and made communication a lot faster. I still had a few pen pals which were still appreciated because they loved writing as much as I did! I remember one of my pen pals and I even having a competition as to who could write the longest letter. I won out at 20 pages! Instant Messenger

A very popular concept when it came out but I didn't do much with it back in the day. AOL was the one that everyone used but I couldn't figure theirs out back then so I just kept with email. Around that time folks were still emailing pretty regularly. Blogs

Then came the blogs. EVERYONE had one. EVERYONE blogged. Most times they had MORE than one! Even business' had one. And all day long all I'd hear when around my friends was if anyone saw what they posted on their blog that day or vice versa about someone else's blog. I even bowed into it towards the end of it's boon. Heh, still do it today, right. I love it actually. It's perfect for me and everything I really like about "social media" but we'll get around to all that later... Social Media sites

MySpace hit and it was all the rage! Believe it or not I was very close to joining the "college" version of it called "Facebook" back then because it was for a smaller market! EVERY single person I knew had one. Someone (Jumping Twinkie) even created a fake one for me at one time. It was so good, he had 7 friend request within the first few hours until I made him shut it down. MySpace was supposed to be FOREVER, but like all things, it's popularity passed and Facebook took it's place. I have to admit, Facebook remaining this popular after so long, beat out my expectations. I once said that Facebook wouldn't last after the year 2012.... whoops! Looks like I was wrong! But it's just not for me. I see my friends constantly on their smart phones checking Facebook all the time at social gatherings. Seeing who tagged them in a photo, liked something they wrote or did, or checked to see what someone's status was at the moment. Bah! Who cares!? The only reason it'd be nice to have one is to keep up on long distance friends but even that isn't enough to garner my interest. Sure I have a Google+ account, but it's small enough for me to know that I don't have to check it constantly for updates. I enjoy the friends I have on it and would love the company if you're interested in getting one as well. But besides that, it's enough social media for me! The ONLY current social site that interest me is Twitter. Twice I've flirted with the idea of getting one only to hear from all my favorite ball players and authors to hear what they have to say. But both times I've started joining, I've backed out, still unsure of if it'd be something I REALLY want. Anyway, that's my spill for today. Have a great weekend folks!