Speech vs. Writing: The Superior form of Communication

Evolution and change occur naturally in the world we live in. Early in history, before technology began to modernize almost all of our daily appliances, the only way people could communicate over long distances was to write letters. Eventually, over many years, communication devices such as the cell phone and e-mail have changed the way people communicate with one another. Now, although the cell phone is both popular and easy to use, in today's society, e-mail is the superior form of communication because it's both quick and easy to use, can be done from any type of computer anywhere in the world, and most importantly, it's the newest technology that's absolutely free!

The first reason that e-mail has become the superior form of communication in today's society is because it's extremely quick. We are very impatient as a generation and are always looking for ways to make our daily schedule move a little faster. For example, the microwave was invented to heat things faster than a conventional stove would. As I was saying, think of how many Americans drive to work every day, sit down at their computers at their desk job, and write countless e-mails to people all over the world. An e-mail can be sent in less than a minute, no problem. Some phone calls can take you nearly a half an hour to say what you're trying to say. In in e-mail, you can simply write what you want to say and wait for a reply. Typing an e-mail is also, for most people, faster than writing out what you want to say on paper. The essay written by Susan Jacoby talks about the decline of books, newspapers, and other forms of written literature among younger Americans. There is such a decline due to technological forms of communication. Now, people can write newspaper articles on the computer rather than writing them by hand. You can even read then entire paper online, which cuts out the steps of leaving home and going to buy a newspaper. Everything becomes more modernized by the second.

The second reason that e-mail has become the superior form of communication in today's society is because you can send and receive an e-mail from anywhere on earth. Phone calls made across the country take longer to complete because they're being made over thousand's of miles. With an e-mail, no matter how far apart the two computers are, the e-mail will get there in the same amount of time. The fact that you can sign onto your e-mail account from any computer is extremely convenient as well. Our generation always wanting to stay in touch with one another is a point that Howard Gardner made in his essay. According to psychologist Sherry Turkle, "...young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time; periods of lonely silence or privacy seem toxic." All the new technologies around us like the computer and the iPod have isolated us as a generation. People don't communicate face to face nearly as much as we did in the past and the e-mail's easy to use style has definitely contributed to this fact.

The final reason that e-mail has become the superior form of communication is because it's free. I think that a lot of people are starting to use e-mail more frequently because it doesn't cost any money to set up your own personal e-mail account. Cell phone's cost hundreds of dollars to buy, not to mention the extra money spent on plans and insurance. E-mailing serves the same purpose as calling someone, but it doesn't cost any money. E-mail, along with other computerized technology are also the newest form of communication. Since my generation is a very technological one, we seem to always be interested in the newest technologies. Telephones were invented before i was born, but the e-mail is relatively new in our society. In the essay by Howard Gardner, he mentions how those born in the 1950's weren't exposed to computers as much as we were. Given our interest for new technologies, it only took us half a century to have more than a billion people communicating via e-mail and other computerized forms of communication.

Having these various types of technologies around us makes it very easy to adapt. Given our natural instinct to evolve and better ourselves, it's no wonder that technological communication like the e-mail have changed the way we communicate. It'll be very interesting to see what form of communication takes over next.