A couple of days ago I was shockéd to discover that someone had left a comment on one of my posts! Further shock was éd’d when I realized this comment was not spam, but that of the GHZ’s respectable admin, who I know as Segaholic2, and I was practically electrocuted when I read the comment and found he wasn’t flaming me for being a retard, as I would no doubt do in his position. Instead, his comment was interesting, critical, and encouraging.
As is probably obvious, this kind of thing doesn’t happen to me. Like, at all. So I wanted to just give him a little message. Just a thank you or something. But I was then confronted with this dilemma: how should I contact him?
Not “how do I contact him?” That I knew. I could say thank you through another comment, a comment on his blog, message boards, pm, im, email, chats ... the list goes on. The question was “how should I contact him?”
I just thought this was odd. I have a dozen ways of approaching this person, but none of them quite seemed appropriate for just a little thank you note. I wonder if this is an issue for anyone else. As communication tech advances, will it really become easier to speak to another individual? Or will it just be more confusing? I’m already having trouble balancing a home phone with a mobile plan, and I can’t even imagine what I’d do with text messaging or whatever. Not to mention having to manage two email accounts and a myspace page weekly, if not daily. It just ends up being a hassle. It makes me think that maybe we don’t really need all this shit that we have at our disposal. Then again, of course, maybe some people do.
Well, in any case, ‘Holic, if you’re reading this, I’d just like to say thanks, I appreciate your words. I hope this little exuberant episode of mine hasn’t caused any undue embarrassment; rather, I hope you got a kick out of it. And for clarification: as I understand it, Japanese individuals (certainly not the country as a whole) are generally expected to associate on the same wavelength as everyone else. If you’re different, you’re not part of the group. This isn’t always the case, of course, but supposedly there is more peer pressure in schools and even in offices to be just like everybody else. The nail that sticks out is hammered down and all that.
1 comment:
Your post turned out quite long for a "little thank you note." :P
You're also right about Japanese culture, and Asian culture in general. Thankfully I've not experienced too much of its harsher social stipulations first-hand, being raised in good ol' America. I've heard plenty of stories from my parents, though.
I'm online almost all the time through pretty much any medium, if you ever feel like chatting about whatever. I try to keep up but I'm a pretty forgetful guy.
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