Joy of Text

A personal blessing that occurred to me recently is that I swim freely through a world that few of my peers know, except in passing. It's a world I dived into decades ago, when most of our society was oblivious to its existence; many thought the whole concept (and probably me) nuts. It's a world that's since been molded into the very fabric of our modern culture, in the very specific ways that suit the current generation. It's a world that has been superseded by technology enhancements like the World Wide Web, camera phones, and video on demand - yet carries on as if nothing happened. It's a world that comes naturally to writers (avocation) like me. It's the world of electronic plain text communication (I'll shorten it to "text" for this post), in its various forms.

In recent times, the power I tap from my experience in this world has come home to me in a big way, due to my hearing loss. When one loses one's hearing (even partially), the most profound effect I've noticed is the social isolation it causes. Things like hearing aids and other assistive audio technologies help (though not the Deaf), but they can't fully replace a working pair of ears for the day to day social experience every person needs to thrive - and sure, there are lots of folks who are deprived said social experience for a variety of reasons, not just hearing issues. Naturally, those of us who are able turn to the next best thing - writing (text). The key issues there, of course, are ability and availability. And as I'm so frequently discovering for myself lately, the "next best thing" often turns out to be just that - better, in some ways, than the speech ability it replaces.

Ability as an issue reared its ugly head before me the other day when I was volunteer tutoring computer skills for a bunch of Salvation Army beneficiaries in an ad-hoc computer lab there. Though some of these folks have computer skills, most have relatively little knowledge or experience in this realm. What's worse for them, though, is that many of them also have quite limited literacy (reading and writing skills using English - or any language, for that matter). In helping them learn to do things like set up and use email accounts, create resumes, etc., I've had to check myself often that I'm not putting undue expectations of literacy on any given student. These students are highly motivated - they volunteer for this class (and many are also taking a GED course). They know that computer skills are an essential component of most jobs today; and also that said skills can greatly enhance their search for employment when they graduate the program.

I wrote the above paragraph because I want to point out my gratitude that I am both highly literate and live in an age when my literacy, combined with the available technologies, can enable me to thrive, even in the absence of good hearing. This wasn't always so (historically), and it certainly isn't so for those who have limited or no functional literacy. Hence I have also volunteered (yet to fulfill) to tutor literacy at the same facility (something I have prior experience in elsewhere) - for that very reason: gratitude.

What really drove me to this post today was my re-growing social experience through real-time text media; most specifically, my participation in chat rooms through Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC is a predominantly text based medium that's been around literally for decades (just like me), and is as crazy and full of mindless nonsense as it has always been. Mired in the process though, are real people who, for a variety of reasons, find this method of socializing to be ideal - either in tandem with more natural means, or as one of their primary social outlets. The power of text in this mode comes out for me in the "purity" of communication with others - I can't see them, and that's actually a good thing; I'm not distracted by visual cues. It's easier to be "real" and efficient when you're not so distracted - witness the (still) entrenchment of the voice telephone (for the hearing-abled) over (now easily available) video conferencing.

IRC is just one example of the power of text for me. Another is the availability of SMS (cell phone) text messaging - something I use many times a day to coordinate my activities in my local social circle. In many instances, a simple "dead-end" (no response required) text message can be more effective than a long, drawn out (and for me, sometimes difficult to understand) phone call. Ability, again, plays a major role - some of us are more skilled and patient with cell phone "keyboarding" than others; I'm not bad at it, but I'm still known to revert to a (happily available!) SMS via Internet service when I'm near my computer.

Text is a limited form of communication, certainly, but hidden in its limitations (for me, anyway) are freedom and power and depth of experience. It's the "power of the pen" literally accelerated by computer technology. This blog is one example. Text doesn't globally replace any other form of communication any more than computers have made printed books obsolete (they haven't come close). For those who have access to it, it's potentially world-expanding; for those who don't, it's another difference to challenge our compassion.