social correspondence

  In writing these blogs of mine I often mention social media, especially Facebook. Facebook has been around for twenty one years now. It has undergone a number of changes and challenges. Today it's a place for old people and those that want to complain about every political decision being made. On a social scale I'd have to give it about a five. Actually I see very little interaction between people on there at all. I decided to post a Good Morning every day and have done so for a number of years now. I have a number of folks that respond in kind and I enjoy that. If I fail to post that is often pointed out with someone asking about my whereabouts. It's a good feeling to know some are paying attention.

 One of the reason for writing these blogs is the hope that some of my descendants may read them. I'm talking about my great grandchildren and beyond. Whatever you post to social media is supposedly preserved on a server somewhere. I've been told it is there forever! Well, that may be true although there have been a number of times I couldn't find whatever I was looking for, and I was the one who wrote it. But whatever the case may be I began to wonder, will those descendants know what Facebook was? I'm fully expecting a name change at some point. I just can't see Facebook remaining for fifty years or more. I can say with certainty I have read some things from the past and was left with the question, what's that? Truth is it happens to me even today, as I fail to keep up with the current trends.

  I think we all have a tendency to assume that what is current will remain familiar. We think everyone would know what I'm talking about. It's true that the action may remain the same but the name has changed. My third great grandfather was a cordwainer. Today we would call him a shoemaker. That's the type of thing I'm thinking about. Will my descendants read my thoughts and observations and wonder, Facebook, what is that? I expect they may have to "Google" that answer but it may not be Google by then. I wonder if there will still be mention of social media platforms at all. I wonder what else they may be called. It's all about the terminology.

  Words define the terminology. Terminology is specific to an action or knowledge base. What are the terms? Fifty years ago a server was understood to be a waiter or waitress. That isn't as clear today and more context is required. Profiling, as it relates to police work, is now called predictive policing. The name was changed to satisfy an image. Profiling is bad, predicting is great. I wonder how many terms I use almost daily that will be misunderstood in the years to come. How many of my observations, opinions and analysis will be completely foreign. Consider that in the 1800's slavery was called an institution. It was a socially acceptable practice to "own" another human being, all sales were final. Read some personal correspondence from that era and it quickly becomes obvious. You will wonder, what the heck? And that is what these blogs really are, a social correspondence. I do occasionally get a response. 

  Well, all I can do is try to explain. Thing is I don't really feel the need to do that at all. I'm not proposing anything that unusual, that far removed from reality that an explanation should be required. I know what I'm talking about! Well, at least I know what I mean, even when you don't. And I guess that is the bottom line with all of this. I accept the responsibility for that. It's the all too familiar, that's what it says, but that isn't want it means debate. The stock in trade of every politician, attorney and child since there have been politicians, attorneys and children. 

   There are a number of letters, personal correspondence from the 1800's detailing all aspects of life during that time. They range from the mundane to the sensational. They are interesting and sometimes provide insight to just what the thinking was at that time.  It's the reason we all say, at one time or another, what the heck were we thinking?