move over, fax

Every generation thinks the one before them was exceptionally slow in the sending and receiving of information. Between our laptops, Blackberries, iPhones and even outdated little Nokias, the world is literally at our fingertips. We Google everything, and personally, i am more thankful for Google with every click on "search." We depend on internet. I would rather have water cut from my home than my precious internet connection. Well maybe not water, but take anything but my internet.

This is coming from the type of work day that is today. So, first, i send an email with an attachment for an order to process, which will be delivered from halfway around the world. I receive and inquiry reply, i respond to the inquiry, and sit back wait for my delivery eight weeks from now. It all takes less than ten minutes. The order is compiled of over three hundred items.

Meanwhile, i receive a phone call, on a landline, transfered through an operator, asking if a fax has been received. It sounds archaic even as i type it. I check that the said fax has been received while promising a call back. I am delivered the actual document in question. It is handwritten. Unprofessionally. In bad handwriting. This order, in comparison to the previous one, will be delivered from less than halfway around Cairo. I conduct the promised call back and am forced to listen to filler phrases for half the call. The whole process takes about half an hour. The order is compiled of twelve items.

I could not help but to notice the huge difference in communication efficiency. The older generation is not kidding when they say we're constantly in a hurry. And that there's no longer time for anything. And every free minute is a minute wasted. Here i am, on a mental break from work, and i cannot sit and do nothing for ten minutes. Instead i choose to pour out my irrelevant pool of thought onto this blog. And this particular pool of thought happens to be pissed off at receiving a handwritten fax, on this day at this point in technological advancement, receiving a handwritten fax.

I recently read Ivanka Trump's book, The Trump Card, in which she refers to the value of a handwritten note. I am not disagreeing with one of my much appreciated role models; a handwritten note is completely different. I would appreciate a neatly handwritten thank you note on personalized stationery. Not a handwritten order processing fax.

It is sad that dependable suppliers in the market i deal with still insist on such communication. But what is sadder is that i don't think they even realize how outdated their methods are. It's like the world is moving on while they were busy not looking up from handwriting the document they are about to fax.

Move over, facsimile. Make room for the email attachment.