In the not too distant past, we communicated with each other with the spoken and written word, telephone, telegraph, and real paper “snail” mail complete with a postage stamp. Fast forward a few decades, and now, in terms of personal communication, we use satellite dependent cellular phones, e-mail, texting, video conferencing, social networking, and other forms of digital media. While generally very efficient in terms of time and energy, these new digital communications technologies have also made us somewhat lazy, something that countless others and I are guilty of. Just tonight, for example, I was grilling dinner on the backyard grill; my wife was doing school work in the bedroom on the opposite side of the house. Rather than shouting, or getting up from my patio chair to come into the house and verbally inform her of when dinner will be ready, I sent her a text message from my smart phone to hers; millions of dollars worth of technology were utilized to send just a few words about 20 yards in distance, telling her that dinner would be ready at about 5:30. Now the realists among you will admit to it – that you have done similar “lazy” forms of communication.
