By Alexei C. Summers (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 9, 2011
Dear Humanity,
Why do you not write letters anymore?
Why, when I was a lad, we used to write letters all the time. But now it seems that letters have become quite extinct. My elementary school even used to have a day devoted to the writing of letters. We would go into the gymnasium and sit down at desks and write a letter to family, and to friends. And you know what? It was fun. That was back in the days before email. That was in the days before you could just type something up on a screen, and press a button. Back then, it took a whole week to send a message from here to California. Now a person can send a letter in five seconds, effectively eliminating the good old “Oh, I guess my letter to you was lost in the mail” excuse, and ultimately making life very dull for postal workers. Of course, that same school also still used typewriters to instruct students how to type when I was attending it, so perhaps things were a little far behind in the technology department. I loathe the thought of what that same elementary school must be doing now in the place of the letters – probably email.
The last decade of technology has made a lot of things easier, but there’s something to be said about the romanticism of letters. There are certain emotions you can’t convey in an email that you can on a written page. There is a certain charming sincerity to seeing the ink on the page – do you remember that? Real ink?
There are serious advantages to writing letters. For one, it develops certain conversational writing skills that would otherwise go undeveloped in the form of an email. It also develops patience. If you can recall, we used to spend a lot of time waiting for responses, and replies. None of this instant gratification stuff.
There are no more opportunities for fancy calligraphy, and I’m sure many people’s penmanship is suffering tremendously for it. There is also no time to learn how to write a good old fashioned love letter. Now it’s all done digitally. Many skills have been lost as time has gone on. Truly. Many skills have been lost. And let’s not forget the most important thing of all – that being that in the event of a nuclear war with North Korea, we probably will not even have email. Those of us who survive will have to once again revert to using letters.
There’s no sense denying it. As a species we’ve gotten lazy. We’ve traded in what was more personal and intricate, for something simple and easy.
I for one still do write letters. Perhaps not on a regular basis, but I do pen them when I have time. And I must admit I’m a little disappointed in you all, and myself, for having allowed things to get to the point where a person doesn’t receive any letters from anyone besides Visa demanding that one pay their credit card bill.
Honestly, humanity. Sometimes you make me feel so very old. It is a digital world, and sometimes I feel like the last of the analog dinosaurs. Now, if you need me, I’ll be in my dressing room. I will be writing letters, and awaiting the imminent nuclear war with the communists.
