I
remember as a child I always ran to the mailbox to see if there was any mail
for me after the mailman came by our house. I was always disappointed when
there were only bills and other letters for my parents, but I loved seeing a
card with a family member’s handwriting on the envelope (especially when it was
around my birthday because that meant birthday money). I still get excited when
I receive cards in the mail from back home.
In
her podcast, Lisa Jardine says that she believes e-mailing and instant messaging
will eventually supersede hand-written letters completely. I disagree. Today,
receiving a letter from someone means something more because it shows that the
sender put real thought and time into their message. It is much easier to
simply shoot someone an e-mail or a text message nowadays because they take
less time and energy to send. Why spend money on stamps when you can just click
‘send’ and have the message delivered instantly? E-mailing and text messaging
have a better chance of being answered quickly; however, there is normally less
thought put into our hurried responses, which takes the personal feel out of
instant messaging. Although there are advantages to using e-mail, I believe
that people will always value the close connection that writing letters brings.
Etiquette
author and director of The Emily Post Institute, Emily Post Senning, believes
that people would miss letters if they were to completely fall out of use. I
agree with Senning. You can keep a permanent record of your communication with
friends and what you have done over the years by saving your letters. A
tangible record is more reliable and sentimental than saving a file of e-mails
on your laptop. Letters are more personal and show that the sender took the
time to write out a note for their recipient. Like any girl, I would always
rather receive a cute love note over a text message or Facebook post any day.
Jardine,
Lisa. "Email Etiquette." A Point of View. Prod. Sheila
Cook. BBC. BBC4, 3 Feb. 2012.
Radio.
Olsen,
Stefanie. "Say so long to traditional letter writing - CNET News." Technology
News - CNET News. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.
<http://news.cnet.com/Say-so-long-to-traditional-letter-writing/2009-1025_3-6204248.html>.
I enjoyed reading you post expecally your persional story in the beginning. I also feel that that letters are a much better form of persional communication than texting because of the fact that texting is so cold and to the point. Do you think we will be able to get to a point where we can have electronic communication that is as persional as pen and paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. There is something so nice and sentimental about letters. They are much more emotional than texts and emails. The thought put into sitting down and actually writing a letter is far stronger than the thought put into a typed email. I like your personal account about letters also.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree that letters are much more personal and meaningful than emails and text messages, and I like the point that you hint at in this post that now, since email, text messaging, and other forms of communication are so common, a letter means even more than it did in the past when they were the main or only means of communication with those far away from you. However, though I do agree that having a letter collection is much more real to us than saving an email, it is also important to recognize when technology can save us a lot of hassle. Like you say, it is nice to have a record of correspondence with friends, but the same record of every communication you have would be overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all your comments in your post. Letters are much more sentimental and have much more emotion compared to an email. Just knowing that someone took the time out of their busy day to write the letter makes it more meaningful. I feel that emails do not have the same value. Sometimes I do spend a lot of time trying to write an email but it might not even come across to the reader that I put a lot of time and effort typing it and making sure everything is clear. Writing a letter has much more meaning.
ReplyDelete