For this project I originally wanted to type this blogpost on a typer writer on campus however, this was made impossible by the development of a pretty awful infection that landed me in the hospital this week. I am home and resting now, which gave me sometime to reconsider my analog project.

I decided to reflect on the phone calls I was making this week. I have always preferred communicating with others via telephone for a while now. I find that texting can be fun when you’re talking to someone new or if useful if you need to send a message that can be read and dealt with later. However, if I need to communicate with someone immediately texting does not fit the bill. This is for a couple of reasons. 1. it is so rare when I urgently text someone that they will read it immediately because they were either in class, their phone was in their bag/pocket, their phone was dead, etc. 2. The silly little beep noise or subtle vibrate of a text is not always easily heard or felt depending on the place you’re in. 3. Ive recently found that a lot of people will only display on their lock screen that they got a message from a person but it doesn’t disclose the message on the screen until you open the messages app. 4. Usually my urgent text messages will say something about calling so why not just skip this step and go straight to the calling?

This week the ability to call someone was dyer whether it was my mom, boyfriend, friend, or the health center. Particularly when you’re sick, having immediate response makes a worlds of difference. I am not referring to sick as head cold sick, I am referring to the sick that renders you immobile and practically helpless/confused which is where I was at Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Time passes extremely slow when you’re sick. If someone doesn’t promptly answer it feels like it could be hours or days until they get back to you. Especially in this case it was even more critical that I call instead of text because I would need to use more brain power (that I did not have) to text someone. Wednesday when I was really feeling ill, I called my mother for some support. (Normally I just tough it out when I am sick but this felt a lot different from previous experiences being sick.) It was nice to hear her gentle voice on phone talking me down from my nerves and addressing the situation with serenity and grace. It was able to give me some peace of mind that this would be figured out. By the end of the call she suggested that I either go to first care or the hospital. After taking this called Immediately fell asleep and woke up about an hour or two later in a puddle of sweat.  The second call I made was to my boyfriend Alex. He knew I was pretty sick when he had left for work. Luckily he was walking in as I was calling him to let him know that I needed to be brought to the ER. Finally when I was starting to be treated I received a couple calls from my close friends that learned of what had happened. There is such a massive difference between someone wishing you well over a text and someone doing the same but over a phone call.

I think some of the big difference between this analog system of communication versus the digital means of communication via text is the level of urgency that each technology carries, the level of human connection that is felt, and level of fluidity in conversing with another(referring to the level of brain power needed to text versus talk on phone).