The ideal way of family has changed, and people who lived in the large family became in the minority in recent years. Living apart from near relatives became general. Greater numbers of people than ever before are living on their own, the amount of single people is on the rise. However, persons who live separately from their family seem want to share some part of life with each other. They are concerned about health and mental condition of family member’s who live apart.
How is it possible to let them share their daily experience with their family in order to share the sense of security with each other? I am going to consider how family can create a situation that they can feel mental distance closely in the physical distance by picking up letter and e-mail as basic communication tool through this research.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Research report
Introduction
I made interviews to some users who live apart from their families about my thesis topic. I asked them how they communicate with family in daily life, what kind of relationship and distance they take, and what is the ideal way and so on. In this phase, I try to find a way to re-define the communication tool that we use in long-distance relationship such as email and letter from several aspects through personal story, memory and their own way of opinion.
Question-1
Do you keep letters that you got? What is the reason that you are keeping them? How do you preserve it?
All of them who I made the interview answered that they keep letters. They consider the letters as a part of relationship with sender and valuable memory. Some of them have special own letter box, and letters are preserved in the box which has been cherished by them. Most of them deal with letters carefully because of the appreciation for sender’s effort and investment to write.
Question-2
Do you look back letters? What is the reason? In which situation?
All of them answered that they look back letters not often but sometimes. Most of them seem find letters accidentally and read it again when they clean room or look for something else. Some of them said that they look back letters when they feel nostalgia and mental anxiety to be healed and calm.
Question-3
Can you recognize your family’s hand-writing?
All of them said yes. And surprisingly there is one person who can even recognize her aunt’s hand-writing.
Question-4
Do you have some good story about letter?
Letter is normally used for communication in distance. However there is different use of it, for instance, one girl from Korea, when she was living with her parents, she had a important decision and need to persuade parents to allow her to do what she wants to do. She used not to talk to them directly but use letter by writing own decision and thought on it. It seems effective way of communication. When you write some sentences, you transform idea in your mind into characters and reflect your thought objectively. It would be clever way to tell important thing at certain distance rather than talk face-to-face directly.
Question-5
How do you contact with your family?
Most of them use phone and skype to contact with their family not constantly but more or less once a week. Due to some parents of them don’t use or are not good at using computer, they select voice communication for contact each other. Some of them send picture to their family by mail to share life.
Question-6
What is your perspective about long-distance relationship and communication?
Some of them answered that when they communicate with family, they talk about life, routine and health condition. However, they seem hesitate to share mental condition or anxiety in order not to make parents worry. One girl said that nowadays it’s much easier to keep a long distance relationship because of the facility of technology. The distance doesn’t seem too long any more and it is a kind of fake getting closer idea. And she thinks the quality becomes less, because it is easy. She misses the idea of waiting for the postman and check box if there is a mail for her.
Question-7
Do you look back email that you got or sent in the past?
Most of them said yes. Especially when they order e-mail box, they read again past e-mails and keep special or emotional e-mails. One person said that when she replies them, she does not use “re” in the space of subject on format of e-mail. She tries to make it new and keep a little bit quality of letter-feeling.
Conclusion、
People seem want to be free and don't want be interfered but at the same time, they do not want to feel lonliness and want to be connected with someone. So they seem have this ambivalent feeling. In the potential evaluation to three media such as the letter, the mail and mobile phone, user select and recognize them as a different tool and use it together depends on situation. People experience various events and get involved in many things in daily life. Some records of the relationship to things, people and the event might be forgotten, but some are rooted in personal memory and might be shared with others. It is hard to regard that past memories in a personal area are just descriptions of events which were concluded in the past, and there is no link between you in present or the future and that. I think that memories are things that guarantee continuance from own past, and will be evidence of the connection of family and friend. By taking out such memories occasionally and present it to others, new value will be created as a chance to communicate with people.
I made interviews to some users who live apart from their families about my thesis topic. I asked them how they communicate with family in daily life, what kind of relationship and distance they take, and what is the ideal way and so on. In this phase, I try to find a way to re-define the communication tool that we use in long-distance relationship such as email and letter from several aspects through personal story, memory and their own way of opinion.
Question-1
Do you keep letters that you got? What is the reason that you are keeping them? How do you preserve it?
All of them who I made the interview answered that they keep letters. They consider the letters as a part of relationship with sender and valuable memory. Some of them have special own letter box, and letters are preserved in the box which has been cherished by them. Most of them deal with letters carefully because of the appreciation for sender’s effort and investment to write.
Question-2
Do you look back letters? What is the reason? In which situation?
All of them answered that they look back letters not often but sometimes. Most of them seem find letters accidentally and read it again when they clean room or look for something else. Some of them said that they look back letters when they feel nostalgia and mental anxiety to be healed and calm.
Question-3
Can you recognize your family’s hand-writing?
All of them said yes. And surprisingly there is one person who can even recognize her aunt’s hand-writing.
Question-4
Do you have some good story about letter?
Letter is normally used for communication in distance. However there is different use of it, for instance, one girl from Korea, when she was living with her parents, she had a important decision and need to persuade parents to allow her to do what she wants to do. She used not to talk to them directly but use letter by writing own decision and thought on it. It seems effective way of communication. When you write some sentences, you transform idea in your mind into characters and reflect your thought objectively. It would be clever way to tell important thing at certain distance rather than talk face-to-face directly.
Question-5
How do you contact with your family?
Most of them use phone and skype to contact with their family not constantly but more or less once a week. Due to some parents of them don’t use or are not good at using computer, they select voice communication for contact each other. Some of them send picture to their family by mail to share life.
Question-6
What is your perspective about long-distance relationship and communication?
Some of them answered that when they communicate with family, they talk about life, routine and health condition. However, they seem hesitate to share mental condition or anxiety in order not to make parents worry. One girl said that nowadays it’s much easier to keep a long distance relationship because of the facility of technology. The distance doesn’t seem too long any more and it is a kind of fake getting closer idea. And she thinks the quality becomes less, because it is easy. She misses the idea of waiting for the postman and check box if there is a mail for her.
Question-7
Do you look back email that you got or sent in the past?
Most of them said yes. Especially when they order e-mail box, they read again past e-mails and keep special or emotional e-mails. One person said that when she replies them, she does not use “re” in the space of subject on format of e-mail. She tries to make it new and keep a little bit quality of letter-feeling.
Conclusion、
People seem want to be free and don't want be interfered but at the same time, they do not want to feel lonliness and want to be connected with someone. So they seem have this ambivalent feeling. In the potential evaluation to three media such as the letter, the mail and mobile phone, user select and recognize them as a different tool and use it together depends on situation. People experience various events and get involved in many things in daily life. Some records of the relationship to things, people and the event might be forgotten, but some are rooted in personal memory and might be shared with others. It is hard to regard that past memories in a personal area are just descriptions of events which were concluded in the past, and there is no link between you in present or the future and that. I think that memories are things that guarantee continuance from own past, and will be evidence of the connection of family and friend. By taking out such memories occasionally and present it to others, new value will be created as a chance to communicate with people.
Literature review
Introduction
The ideal way of family has changed, and people who lived in the large family became in the minority in recent years. Living apart from near relatives became general. Greater numbers of people than ever before are living on their own, the amount of single people is on the rise. However, persons who live separately from their family seem want to share some part of life with each other. They are concerned about health and mental condition of family member’s who live apart.
How is it possible to let them share their daily experience with their family in order to share the sense of security with each other? I am going to consider how family can create a situation that they can feel mental distance closely in the physical distance by picking up letter and e-mail as basic communication tool through this research.
Transition of communications tool
There are numerous ways in which people have changed the way they communicate in the last 50 years; email is most certainly one of them. Traditionally, social interaction in the local community was the basis for communication face-to-face. Yet, today face-to-face meetings are no longer the primary way to communicate as one can use a landline telephone or any number of the computer mediated communications such as email. As communication technology has diversified, letters have become less important as routine communication. The development of the telegraph, telephone, fax and the internet have all had an impact on the writing and sending of letters. In modern industrialized nations, the exchange of personal letters has become less common, being replaced by technologies such as the telephone and also email. By the advent of popularization of the internet, the way of media selection by user has remarkably changed. The decrease of the number of letter use at last few years is proved by a lot of objective macro data.
Difference between letter and e-mail
What is the difference between letter and other communication tools?
What is the reason why the letter is still last in this world where the Internet spread out so much. The common point to both is communication of interchanging of information through characters, and the different point is immediacy of information. Though a basic feature of the network communications is indirect media mainly composed of the character. The character used with email is uniform character which is provided from technical convenience. Because of that, unique side of the personal way and habit which appears in hand-writing is excluded completely. The writing character that your hand actually wrote transmits writer's feelings and character to the reader side like same as painting, but email does not. The writing character is able to be said that it accompanies media that can transmit strong meaning. Such media like email can transmit content of sentences (information) almost faithfully, but emotionally weakened by the necessity of the technology. That is to say, characters are uniformly united, and visually the same font, even if which person drives it by any feelings and situation. You probably can guess who of the family wrote the characters by only seeing it, and I think your family can recognize your hand-writing surely.
Psychological consideration
According to George Herbert Mead 1863-1931, in human mind, there is the mechanism that makes oneself identified from other's attitudes by taking in the reaction from people internally. The meaning of information which one originate can be voluntarily recognized from the outside as others attitude. To apply this theory to writing, by reading own sentences that you wrote, the appeal to one's internal mind is occurred. For instance, when you read your dairy again, you would remember the memory and emotion which have been forgotten. At the same time, you would face yourself that used to exist in the past. Bond between people is desired, it is probably because of lonliness which is seen in a present society. It is difficult to admit own value in this society that the relationship between parents and the friend is becoming weak. Through receiving the influence from others little by little, people establish their own identity and improve their individuality. It can be regarded that the act of sending message can become not only the conversation with someone, but also the one to reflect oneself. Such a important role has existed in those communication tools.
Conclusion
The health of mental and the stability of emotion are related to the mutual interpersonal relationships between families. It might be difficult for family relationship to find out a correct answer to achieve a healthy mind and happy daily life. I think there is something important because of the distance physically or mentally. So what if the communications tool such a email can be redesigned as more humane media? The sentence which is written by the same font or original hand-writing, which can tells a lot? I would like to suggest new way of possibility of communication which is assimilated the warmth of hand-writing and the convenience of email, by making the best advantage of both tools.
The ideal way of family has changed, and people who lived in the large family became in the minority in recent years. Living apart from near relatives became general. Greater numbers of people than ever before are living on their own, the amount of single people is on the rise. However, persons who live separately from their family seem want to share some part of life with each other. They are concerned about health and mental condition of family member’s who live apart.
How is it possible to let them share their daily experience with their family in order to share the sense of security with each other? I am going to consider how family can create a situation that they can feel mental distance closely in the physical distance by picking up letter and e-mail as basic communication tool through this research.
Transition of communications tool
There are numerous ways in which people have changed the way they communicate in the last 50 years; email is most certainly one of them. Traditionally, social interaction in the local community was the basis for communication face-to-face. Yet, today face-to-face meetings are no longer the primary way to communicate as one can use a landline telephone or any number of the computer mediated communications such as email. As communication technology has diversified, letters have become less important as routine communication. The development of the telegraph, telephone, fax and the internet have all had an impact on the writing and sending of letters. In modern industrialized nations, the exchange of personal letters has become less common, being replaced by technologies such as the telephone and also email. By the advent of popularization of the internet, the way of media selection by user has remarkably changed. The decrease of the number of letter use at last few years is proved by a lot of objective macro data.
Difference between letter and e-mail
What is the difference between letter and other communication tools?
What is the reason why the letter is still last in this world where the Internet spread out so much. The common point to both is communication of interchanging of information through characters, and the different point is immediacy of information. Though a basic feature of the network communications is indirect media mainly composed of the character. The character used with email is uniform character which is provided from technical convenience. Because of that, unique side of the personal way and habit which appears in hand-writing is excluded completely. The writing character that your hand actually wrote transmits writer's feelings and character to the reader side like same as painting, but email does not. The writing character is able to be said that it accompanies media that can transmit strong meaning. Such media like email can transmit content of sentences (information) almost faithfully, but emotionally weakened by the necessity of the technology. That is to say, characters are uniformly united, and visually the same font, even if which person drives it by any feelings and situation. You probably can guess who of the family wrote the characters by only seeing it, and I think your family can recognize your hand-writing surely.
Psychological consideration
According to George Herbert Mead 1863-1931, in human mind, there is the mechanism that makes oneself identified from other's attitudes by taking in the reaction from people internally. The meaning of information which one originate can be voluntarily recognized from the outside as others attitude. To apply this theory to writing, by reading own sentences that you wrote, the appeal to one's internal mind is occurred. For instance, when you read your dairy again, you would remember the memory and emotion which have been forgotten. At the same time, you would face yourself that used to exist in the past. Bond between people is desired, it is probably because of lonliness which is seen in a present society. It is difficult to admit own value in this society that the relationship between parents and the friend is becoming weak. Through receiving the influence from others little by little, people establish their own identity and improve their individuality. It can be regarded that the act of sending message can become not only the conversation with someone, but also the one to reflect oneself. Such a important role has existed in those communication tools.
Conclusion
The health of mental and the stability of emotion are related to the mutual interpersonal relationships between families. It might be difficult for family relationship to find out a correct answer to achieve a healthy mind and happy daily life. I think there is something important because of the distance physically or mentally. So what if the communications tool such a email can be redesigned as more humane media? The sentence which is written by the same font or original hand-writing, which can tells a lot? I would like to suggest new way of possibility of communication which is assimilated the warmth of hand-writing and the convenience of email, by making the best advantage of both tools.
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