"You've Got Mail"

You’ve Got Mail

This movie “You’ve Got Mail”, is a perfect example how technology has taking over the world in which we live in. I have watched this movie plenty of times, yet I have never watched it with the intent on discovering or exploring the commuacative interaction between the two characters.

This movie takes place in the busy city of New York City. Kathleen Kelly runs a small business book store that has been in the community for many of years. Joe Fox is this big time business man who owns these large and well respected book stores. Fox plans on opening one his large book stores in the same neighborhood as Kathleen’s book store. With the emergence of Fox store it is well assumed that Kathleen’s shop, that has been a community favor, will fold and go out of business due to the lack of sales. Kathleen and Joe share two things in common. One, the two of them own successful bookstores and two, they both have an addiction to emails. Throughout the movie these two, unknowingly chat with one another and begin to fall in love with one another.

Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox form this relationship in which they pretend to live in this fantasy world through the internet. The two chat often, whether it is about problems they face or just a simple hello to see how each others day went. There is no specific detail in these messages that are sent between the two which possibly strengthens their relationship. It strengthens their relationship because it helps create the fantasy world that they are in.

The two characters recreated their identities by not getting into specific details. By chatting on line it allowed the two to imagine and paint a picture of what the other looked like. They formed this perfect relationship based on their communicative style. By engaging in Asynchronous communication the lag time between the two allows them to think about their responses and respond whenever he or she pleases. Unlike a face to face conversation, the asynchronous communication style doesn’t require an immediate response. The ability to have more time to think about a response simply provides the receiver of the message to throughlly understand and create a well written response to the sender of the message.

I think these kinds of relationships can occur in the world we live in today. I think feelings can arise through online chatting. Now, are these feelings real or are they simply fantasy feelings because of the lack of specific details that are exchanged? I have heard stories of people exchanging messages on Facebook or AIM and actually started dating. Although Facebook differs for the fact that a visual picture can be seen, it still allows communicative skills between the two.I have even heard stories of people preferring to talk with someone online rather than face to face because a face to face conversation may put them out of their comfort zone and online conversations provides the person with a safety net of responding or not responding at all.