Dear friends and family worldwide,
Wishing you and your families a wonderful holiday season
with Peace, Health and Happiness in 2011!
Dear Webheads: The advent of electronic greeting cards has, I suspect, caused the same kind of misgivings as the advent of the typewriter. How much is "gained" by the ease of new technology and how much is lost by the reduction, or elimination of the old?
The examples are too so obvious, and now, very nearly "too" personal.
Last week my brother bought me a Kindle and for two days I let it sit in the box. How could I "give up" that which is most dear to me -- not just the pleasure of a "real" book or a "real" newspaper or a "real" magazine, but (especially in the case of books, the ownership of it. (Not to mention the pleasure of gifting a book that you
yourself had read.) Yesterday, I received the electronic card available to you, below, with a simple mouse click. It came from one of my best friends who only a few years ago had never visited a web site.
The result? I love the Kindle, and won't go anywhere without it at my side. The card? Bear with me -- here are my thoughts.
Did the electronic card bring me more pleasure than one personally selected and purchased for anywhere from $1.00 to $4.00. Then snail mailed, with 50 cent stamp, for arrival in my post box. All that trouble, all that cost, then the nice, nice touch: a hand written note suitable for safe keeping, suitable to bring a novel sense of discovery for grand kids long after I have left this world. It's hard to imagine that electronic cards can "match" these kinds of benefits...even with all the costs.
Yet, I am not so sure. The card selected, as you can find when you go to the server, is very, very fun. The interactive component, and the images, and the music could not possibly be "matched" by any "regular" card sent to me the "regular" way. I had a hard time keeping back a tear.
Anyway...if you are still with me??? -- here is the point.
All this brought me to the Webheads where I continuously marvel about the work you do. What seems like a long time ago -- 15 years? - I became convinced that the largest gains of "the new tools" would come to the most important sector of society -- to those teaching and those learning. Shucks! Isn;t that just about everyone everywhere --- or if not, then why not?
This is a long "introduction" to a short wish: Happy Holidays, Dear Webheads. May each and all of you have a Great New Year. Enjoy the card. And, perhaps, do as you often do --- select YOUR favorite card and send it to all of us by the "magic" of Yahoo.
Kind wishes to all of you,
John Hibbs
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