A Manifesto for Slow Communication - WSJ.com - The Diigo Meta page

• 20 Oct 09
  

  Shanta Rohse

  Speed used to convey urgency; now we somehow think it means efficiency.

  wsj communication john_freeman context_sensitivity via:laurie_macfayden speed

  • Speed used to convey urgency; now we somehow think it means efficiency
• 31 Aug 09
  

  Doug Crawford
• 24 Aug 09
  

  David Corking

  While I disagree with a lot of this essay, I recommend it as food for thought.

  E-mail Social Networking facebook

  • How many of our most joyful memories have been created in front of a screen?
  • Communicating at great haste hones our utterances down to instincts and impulses that until now have been held back or channeled more carefully.

    • 

      David Corking on 2009-08-24

      But most of us can speak faster than we can type or text, and no-one complained that conversation makes our brains work too fast.
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • The difference between typing an email and writing a letter or memo out by hand is akin to walking on concrete versus stroll­ing on grass.
    • Our cafes, post offices, parks, cinemas, town centers, main streets and commu­nity meeting halls have suffered as a result of this development.

      • 

        David Corking on 2009-08-24

        Really? How many people met strangers in such places?
    • A butcher can tell you which cuts of meat are the freshest; an online grocer may not. That same butcher, if he is good, might not just remember your preferences—which an online retailer can do frighteningly well—but ask you how your mother has been doing, whether you caught the latest football game. These interactions remind us that we are more than con­sumers; they remind us that we are part of the world in a way no amount of online shopping ever will.

      • 

        David Corking on 2009-08-24

        This is right on the money - a visit to a local farm shop is a wonderful experience.
    • If we spend our eve­ning online trading short messages over Facebook with friends thousands of miles away rather than going to our local pub or park with a friend, we are effectively withdrawing from the peo­ple we could turn to for solace, humor and friendship, not to mention the places we could go to do this. We trade the com­plicated reality of friendship for its vacuum-packed idea.

      • 

        David Corking on 2009-08-24

        It might be just the way this essay was abridged for the paper, but I cannot see whether the author wants us to spend all evening writing a longhand letter to a distant friend, or ignore them altogether to spend time with a local friend.
• 

  miguel bejar

  Society

• 22 Aug 09
  

  James Schirmer

  wsj communication internet future

Public Stiky Notes

• 
  David Corking on 2009-08-24
  But most of us can speak faster than we can type or text, and no-one complained that conversation makes our brains work too fast.
• 
  David Corking on 2009-08-24
  Really? How many people met strangers in such places?
• 
  David Corking on 2009-08-24
  This is right on the money - a visit to a local farm shop is a wonderful experience.
• 
  David Corking on 2009-08-24
  It might be just the way this essay was abridged for the paper, but I cannot see whether the author wants us to spend all evening writing a longhand letter to a distant friend, or ignore them altogether to spend time with a local friend.

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