Email

Email is an interesting form of communication. When you write things in an email they come out differently than if you expressed them verbally. Its harder to portray feelings and emotions in text. You lose tone, pauses, inflection, etc. On the other hand I find it easier to express things in writing than say in person, or over the phone. Despite email's limitations of being very one-sided, it is a comfortable medium for expressing things. I also like the fact that it gives you a chance to compose what you want to say, instead of having to 'think on your feet'.

I remember as a kid I used to be afraid of phones. Whenever the phone rang, me and my brother and sister would all yell, 'not it!' No one wanted to answer the phone. One time I had to call a friend of mine about a birthday party, or something like that. I took out the phone and set it on the table. I stared at it for awhile, picked up the receiver, listened to the dial tone, took a deep breath, started dialing, hung up again. Walked away, walked past the table, stared at the phone for a while longer. Listened to the dial tone again, hung up. And so on, and so on. I think it must have took an hour to make that phone call. And it wasn't even a call to a boy!

So with the invention of emailing I am much better able to communicate (and no I'm not scared of phones anymore, though I still prefer ftf interactions).