Sms, instant messaging, email… let’s face it, with technology heavily ingrained in our everyday routine, we have been accustomed to the concept of having things happening in an instant.
The minute we click “send”, your client receives an email reply with all the necessary attachments. The minute we press enter, your friend receives details of a 21st birthday party and almost immediately replies with a “Yes, I’m going!”. The minute you click “confirm transfer”, $25.99 leaves your bank account and goes into the account of a blogshop owner.
But interestingly and oddly enough, the very last example exhibits how the fast pace of technology, or more specifically the Internet, collides with the archaic and traditional way of communication – that is the use of snail mail.
Take for example, (based on the humble experience of yours truly) an order of a year’s subscription of drool-worthy Aussie magazine Delicious from Amazon.com. With a few simple clicks of the mouse, the subscription was added to the basket, checked out and paid for. All this happened within a few minutes in December 2008.
But only today, on 28 January 2009, did the first magazine arrive at my doorstep and into my outstretched and excited arms (courtesy of my dad. Of course, like all mail, it ended up in the mailbox first.)
Personally, as much as it was painful waiting in eager anticipation for the magazine to reach sunny Singapore, it is a much welcomed feeling amidst all the constant bombardment of “Now! Now! Now!” and “I want to see it in 5 minutes.” It also reconnects (if I may use a technology related verb) us to the oft-forgotten trait of patience, something I’m very sure our parents had a lot more chances to cultivate than we do now.
In that period of time that that the waiting game took place, it also created a silent hype around that particular item we’ve been anxiously looking out for and ultimately, making us treasure it fully when its finally within our reach. Trust me on this one, I’ve already read the magazine twice and I still want to flip through its mouth-watering pages another time.
Well, now that I’ve given you a little lesson on life (and a blog post which has been long overdue), if you would so kindly excuse me, I’m going to feast my eyes (pun intended) on the luscious pictures of rib-eye steaks with wasabi butter and hotcakes with orange ricotta all over again.
Yum.
just listen to me mew 