The Lost Art of Letter Writing

The Lost Art of Letter Writing aka My Personal Homage to the Royal Mail

The advent of Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, other social media that I can’t think of right now, email, texting, picture messaging, video calls and even phone calls has meant that the humble letter has fallen out of favour with pretty much everyone. The receiving of post is often limited these days to either bills, subscriptions, newsletters (although a lot have receded online now) bank statements (but even these are mostly done online) or spam. Indeed December (or even late November if you super organised) is the only month that most people will receive post (aside from birthdays but my birthday is in December so my argument is still valid) in the form of Christmas cards or Seasons Greetings if you want to be politically correct. Christmas Cards or ‘hastily signed wastes of money’ as I like to call them often provide me with a good chuckle at the lengths that people have gone to not only buy the card but also the stamps to then just sign their names under a cheesy greeting and send them to every Tom, Dick or Harry even if they haven’t talked to them in years. Why even bother sending it if you have nothing to say to the person?

However some people (especially those of the Facebook generation) are opting out of the ‘Christmas card’ phenomenon  and/or even sending birthday cards and are instead opting for sending a mundane ‘Happy Birthday x’ message on the ‘great and powerful’ Facebook instead. I must admit that I am guilty of this.

But enough about Christmas/Birthday cards what I actually wanted to talk about was the lost art of letter writing and yes let’s admit it; there is indeed an art to constructing a good letter.  

The days of pouring your life and soul onto a piece of paper or card are some people may argue well and truly over that’s what people use email or even IMing for but there’s something to be said about the way the humble letter is not instant. You have to wait days or weeks (sometimes it can even take months if the post has gone awry) for a reply, expectations tend to mount as you wait to hear from the recipient and there a few things more exciting than tearing the envelope open when what you have been waiting for finally arrives (yes I am aware that that sentence does make me sound like a rather sad excuse for a human being)

The work required in getting your hand written (or even typed) letter from A to B also seems to add to the letter writing experience. The workmanship required in not only collecting, sorting and delivering  your personal words and thoughts shows the dedication of the postal system in delivering your message even if it is a load of piffle (as my letters often are.)

The achievements and strives in modern technology have been (I won’t deny) really quite spectacular especially when you can speak to someone on the other side of the world as if they were sitting only next to you. Technology, social media and all that new-fangled stuff has brought families, friends, strangers and fangirls alike closer together through the almighty vessel of the internet and phone lines but there is only so much you can say in txt spk and even then u sound lyk an idiot.