ג׳ בניסן ה׳תשע״א (Thursday 7 April 2011) · 0 comments
A few weeks ago, I left Israel, where I’d lived for about seven years, and returned to America. My decision to leave was pretty quick, and I went through the whole process of leaving in just about three weeks. I decided not to let it get drawn out because I saw how hard that was emotionally for other people who’d done the same thing. In deciding quickly and then leaving quickly, I inevitably didn’t get to tell a lot of people. Even my better friends who did know that I was leaving didn’t all get to spend any time with me before I left. I’m pretty sorry about that.
If you’re reading this, I’d of course like to stay in touch with you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me so I can tell you my new American telephone number. I don’t particularly have any plans to visit Israel in the near future – so please don’t expect to see me there – though I certainly don’t rule it out in the long run.
This internet domain, ngng.co.il, is going to stay like it is for a while. Once it’s set up, I’m going to start blogging at lineswritinglines.com and import my old posts from here to there. All new content will appear there, so please subscribe with the new LWL RSS feed.
Incidentally, “301 redirect” is a little pun. 301 is the HTTP status code for “permanent redirect” (my move from Israel is permanent), and it’s also the telephone area code for suburban Maryland (that’s where I’ve landed – until I’ve completed planning for my next big move).
י״ט באדר א׳ ה׳תשע״א (Wednesday 23 February 2011) · 2 comments
Interesting and germane question on The Fuerst Stone: What is the message implied by the media we use to communicate?
I’d answer like this:
- Facebook messaging: I can’t be bothered to remember or care about remembering your email address. Or I don’t trust the email protocols to deliver an email to you and then deliver your reply back to me. Or I don’t trust your inbox management skills enough to be relatively certain that you’ll actually reply to me, even if you intend to. Or this communication is short, snappy and personal.
- Facebook wall: This might be relevant for more than one other person in our social circle. I don’t mind if the rest of the world sees whatever it is that I’m asking you or sharing with you.
- LinkedIn: This is probably about a job offer or specific professional-related issues. Or I don’t actually know you and I feel more comfortable / less stalkerish initiating contact with you on this site that’s supposed to be about networking and less about connecting people who already know each other.
- Twitter: Please retweet.
- Telephone: It’s personal and sensitive. Or it’s personal and so important that communicating the information any other way could come across as cold. Or I want something from you and I’m concerned that you’ll be able to blow me off if I use a different way of communicating.
- SMS: I almost never initiate SMS conversations unless it’s to give information for which I don’t need or expect a reply. I try to keep my SMS replies to a bare minimum, and if someone needs my reply in a moment, I pretty much expect him to call me to get it.
- Instant messaging: Weirdly, this most personal and casual communication that I used in high school and college now has a major use in business. Every company where I’ve worked in the last five years has used one instant messaging service or another internally to keep all the employees up to speed with each other. Some use it better and some definitely use it worse, but it’s ubiquitous. My preference is normally to walk across the office and talk to someone in person, though.
- Video chat: Never. Never.