Conversation

I have been inviting friends to my home ever since I started living alone three years ago. I love hosting them and making them feel comfortable in my home. In today’s world, people heavily rely on social platforms. Instant messaging is convenient, but it can be difficult to tell if we’re truly connecting with others. Are we talking to real people, or just chatbots? Additionally, social platforms often present a filtered version of people’s lives. How about their true selves We probably can never know. ...

Twenty-something years ago, there was no internet access in typical households. When I finished my homework, I often called my friends via the home phone. The phone calls usually lasted 15 to 30 minutes. Then, it was my mother’s turn to speak to her friends for another 15 to 30 minutes. When feature phones started to become popular, many mobile phone service providers offered a promotion plan allowing users to send a certain amount of free SMS messages to others who were using the same service provider. We switched to the same service provider and kept texting each other day and night. There was a limit on the number of words per SMS message. I still remember how much effort we made to make our texts concise. ...