You can't take it back

During a recent visit with a couple of friends, we discussed the philosophy of the modern day practice of texting. That conversation led to a wide range of related topics about the meaning of words, and how long they remained in one's life. It was soon evident to us, that once spoken, written, texted, or aired, any utterance takes on its very own existence.

We learn so very much from language. I realize this every time I am watching episodes of my new favorite show, "The Bridge." About a third of the telecast is spoken in Spanish. I have so regretted never taking that class.

I desperately try to watch the characters and their expressions, and at the same time I am helplessly attempting to keep up with the sub titles, at the bottom of the screen.

The beginning of any modern civilization can always be traced to the point where they develop a system of some type of written language. It is the foundation for all that we are as a people.

Before there was written language, there were special tribal members within each society, that were the keepers of the culture. They memorized long stories, poems, and songs, that saved the past for their people.

Once written language was created, a new class of people, "scribes" became revered members of any society. In ancient Egypt, for example, people went to scribes regularly to have messages inscribed onto soft clay or later early paper known as "papyrus," which could be then sent for simple letters or business.

The advent of the printing press was the next evolution in our use of words. In a matter of minutes a set of writings that would have taken days or weeks for scribes to complete, was now made available to millions.

As more and more people learned to write for themselves, the letter or message became a vital part of everyday life. We know so much about the past from reading these epistles. One of my favorite Presidents, John Adams, was a prodigious correspondent. Many books about him have been authored after close scrutiny of his letters to and from his wife Abigail, and close friends like Thomas Jefferson.

In the 20th century, the advent of the telephone and later the cell phone, began to infringe upon the use of personal letters. People simply found they preferred to talk rather than communicate with written words.

Time became an issue too. It took longer to write one's thoughts. Radio and television began to take up much of the free time people enjoyed when not working. In older times, it was not uncommon for an individual to spend several hours corresponding to others.

Things have a way of fulfilling the old adage, "what goes around, comes around!" We have now entered the era of the social media experiment. Words are now beginning to be used again, instead of verbal communications.

This new frontier of word use, has given us much to ponder. It is a human enterprise, that may take several years to completely develop and understand.

One of the issues is permanence. In the cyber world that I barely can comprehend or understand, all that we do is being copied in real time. There are actually corporations that are in the business of tracking every electronic bit of anything we do. Forget the government spying on us, there is a much more dangerous "eye in the sky," that hovers over us in "Uriah Heep" humbleness.

No one knows now what all this portends for our future, but we can look at the more personal aspects of the social media world for insights.

One of the examples came from the very conversation I had with my friends. One of them had been in a relationship several months back. After it ended, they exchanged texts with the former partner, in an effort to find closure and some answer to the question, "what happened."

My friend didn't have to just recall these communications, they were able to display the texts, which were still there in the phone's memory.

I would love to tell you that we came to some very insightful conclusions and advice for my friend after reading these historical texts, but alas no. Where romance is concerned, most of us are no more adept than our ancestors of eons ago, at understanding the whys and why nots of love.

What did make an impression upon all of us, was the idea that these very personal conversations via text, were out there in the cyber world. If the person on the other end of the message wanted to pass it along to someone else, there was nothing one could do to prevent that.

This led to other observations. The "greeting card" business is in free fall in today's world. So very few people now will pay several dollars for mail delivered paper greeting card, when they can easily send an ecard through the internet.

Texting has become an obsession for so many people. Each of us admitted that we find ourselves answering more texts than we should. It can even be dangerous. Many accidents are now reported to be a direct result of texting while driving.

I made a prediction to my friends during our conversation. I predicted that the cyber world we know now will be ancient history in just a very short time. The cyber world and social media are just the most recent inventions. There will be new systems just as unusual and amazing, and it won't be that far into the future.

But, no matter what changes, always remember, once you have put your words out there, you can rarely take them back. At least we didn't have that former loves name tattooed on our body! That would be the most painful words you could never take back!