This was mentioned by an online friend, who proceeded to send me a handwritten letter. I still owe her one in return. And I haven’t written my family in Scotland in ages – phone calls are easier.
But I remember those long multi-paged letters. Sitting quietly and pouring all my news and interests onto the pages. Talk about a living active diary.
So, what happened?
Social instant gratification in my opinion.
There’s nowhere we can hide. Nowhere we can escape and relax away from the world. Letter writing allowed us the time to think through our thoughts and feelings. A time to answer in peace. A time to think and remember there’s a person on the other end of our words.
Letters would start – Dear ___________. Meaning this is someone we value. Someone we have taken time for. We would acknowledge them and their life, ask after them and their family. Even their pets.
Saying goodbye we would close with words expressing ourselves and everything we meant in the letter.
I’m not going to touch on the emotional value of the handwritten love or apology letter.
Today’s messages have become word rushes of bluntness. They send the reader into the reaction of being hit with the selfish blow of rudeness and unworthiness. Uncaring and impersonally too personal. These limited characters strike out without conscious. Where we once knew and understood the written word – their meaning and tone usage – we now toss them out at the click of the send icon and move on. Never caring what we’ve left…sent…behind.
Too cynical?
Too negative?
Delivering the same here and now?
I’m not afraid to say that my life experience has proven to me more times than not: (1) if you agree, you understand and/or have experienced the same (2) disagree – you recognize you’ve done this.
Which is me? Where do I fit in, here among my words?
Both.