Wittering on

Once upon a time letters and personal visiting would have been the sole ways that people would employ to keep in touch. Things were more formal I guess.

Today I was tied to the house because of the dratted snow.

VPN technology gave me a working environment identical to my desktop at work. I used email and text messaging to exchange information with colleagues.

I researched flights, hotels and train travel for a forthcoming business trip on the Internet.

I experienced Stephen Fry getting up, packing for a trip, making purchases in the airport and getting told off for still having his phone on when he was supposed to be boarding.

Later on I used Twitter to quickly (in 140 characters) tell people that I was working at home and what sort of day I was having.

A friend in Scotland used it to tell me and his other friends that he was snowed in and was planning a coffee whilst he considered his options.

The guy who sells me green coffee beans made me a Twitter contact and gently shamed me into cleaning my coffee machine.

At lunchtime I took some photographs and this evening I uploaded them to Flickr for other people to see and to make comments about (if they so choose).

I also used the medium of Flickrmail to chat to a fellow photographer about the snow and the fact that he could get out and take some pictures.

All the while, an email conversation between 6 people was kept going in short, pithy sentences, planning an evening out (that a couple of us didn't make). There were a couple of other emails later this evening too.

Tonight a friend pointed me in the direction of some architectural software tutorials that he'd found interesting and thought I might too.

I've exchanged internet-based cartoons with two people.

Tonight I've played Scrabble with two people exchanged some banter on Facebook and had gently mocking text messages from other people who were at the social that I missed.

So - all in all I've been in contact with

My boss; seven other colleagues; about 15 friends; two people from whom I buy things; one "celebrity" and one family member. 27 people in total.

The only person I actually met face to face was the veggie man but I feel as if I've had a day filled with the presence of people...and nicely so.

I've met all the colleagues I dealt with today - but that's not always the case.
Of the friends I mention:
Four I've never met
One I haven't seen for about fifteen years

Each of the media I've used today fitted the circumstances - email, text message, my blog, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook.

It has seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me but it is a world completely unfathomable to my ma (a spritely 82).

I'm typically an early adopter of technological hardware but a slow learner in the online services field. Maybe I should be braver and invite in the next big thing...whatever that is...