Why don't people write letters more often?

Some people still do.I occasionally write them.I have a friend that sends me postcards from his hometown .He only lives 45 minutes away.LOL! :)They all have the Pope on them

email

Edit* Come to think of it, we all write letters to people…..short, misspelled, bad grammar riddled letters. They’re called text messages.

I love nothing more than to recieve a hand-written letter. I can’t say I send them too often. This post has got me thinking though and I can think of a few people I’d like to contact :)

George Calrin put it best… let me find this clip. Gah can’t find it. But do listen to his work: “When will jesus bring the pork chops”, probably the best and funniest answer :)

Handwritten letters are seen as an inconvenience in an increasingly technological world. However, I adore writing and receiving handwritten letters. They lend themselves to a much more personal feeling than emails or text messages. And somehow, opening your heart in a handwritten letter is much easier. There is a sense of substance in them that technology will never be able to duplicate. Especially now, because when people take the time to write a letter when it isn’t even necessary anymore, it makes them feel that much more special.

I like to write letters, myself.

Because email is faster and cheaper.

You just reminded me I forgot to put the letter to my friend in the mail, hah.
She recently got Spider-man stationery and I got Hello Kitty stationery. So we’ve been writing each other.

These other things we have called email and cell phones are more efficient.

Here’s some interesting trivia. At the turn of the century it was considered the Golden Age of the Postcard and these are some of the most highly sought by collectors.

The decade between 1905–1915 – the Golden Age of Postcards – saw postcard collecting reach a zenith of staggering proportion. Literally millions of postcards were printed, imported, sold and mailed. Official U.S. Post Office figures for the year ending June 30, 1908 revealed that approximately seven hundred million postcards had been mailed in this country. By 1913 the total number mailed had increased to over nine hundred million, and, by this date, the craze was reportedly on the decline!

~http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/qc16510ess.htm

Initially one could only have the address on the reverse and there was just a little strip at the bottom of the front where someone would pen a little note- “Wish you were here etc.” With the invention of the portable camera by Kodak people would have their photos developed on Postcards. Again these “Real Photo” Cards are quite collectible.
There was a time in many major Metropolitan areas where there was 2–3 mailings a day and someone could literally send a postcard in the morning telling their friend that they would be arriving for dinner later that evening! In their new fangled horseless carriage of course.

Some of my favorites have always been the Halloween cards like these Winsch gems. Or how about this one Wow! Interestingly enough it was a major holiday among the old Edwardian folks. Probably ripe with opium tonics along with candy treats by the looks of some of the outrageous art on these old cards.

Because Skype is a lot more fun. And Instant Messaging is a lot quicker and easier.

E-mail, Skype, Jpegs, and cell phones have made paper and pen obsolete! Really no biggie and so much nicer to have to make these connections all the more real!

It’s a pity, really. I have a little locked tin box with love letters from my youth…waiting for my daughter when I kick the bucket.

We do – just because they’re in a form of email doesn’t mean anything – the emotions are the same, the sentiments expressed are the same, the connection fast – it’s not about the material on which you write but what you write and how you connect.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir
There’s a ritual and tactile nature involved in letter writing and a personal effect that speaks more of a genuine involvement on the part of the sender. It indicates that someone extended more effort in the process. You can’t put an email on a shelf or spray perfume on a digital transmission.

@SeventhSense I’ve printed out emails in the past and framed them because, to me, they are letters. And I’ve never sprayed perfume on any letters I wrote before email, but that’s just me. I understand others can have tactile experiences attached to letter-writing and so may they write more often. But there’s no need to cry out and say no one communicates ‘like they used to’ anymore.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir
Who’s cryin’? I can entertain both ideas has valid…only one is more soulful

Because kids and people have texting and blackberries, computers and emails… etc. People can send written emails etc to each other in split seconds. Because no one wants to find a piece of paper, get a pen, and write something. Because they could easily whip out their phone, and text a message. Because they can turn on the computer connect to Facebook and leave a comment, you now what I mean. This is the 21st century! but I write written letters occasionally to long time friends

@SeventhSense no, not you – just the sense I get with people as soon as we hear something about what we used ‘before, in the good old days’ just for the sake of it – we shouldn’t obsess or reject technology, we should understand how we relate to it and move on. Attaching notions like ‘soulful’ is subjective and personal and it’s all good but one’s soul can remain whole no matter the environment or the changes

Check out my links there. That stuff is just beautiful. There’s a reason art is valued. Even photography is rarely valued to the extent that painting is because the camera/technology/machine is a buffer that stands between the viewer and the artist and it kind of cheapens it as beautiful as certain images are. It kind of blocks intimacy.

@SeventhSense I am not saying art or SLR photography (I am a daughter of a photographer who photographed for 30 years and to his death was against digital) don’t have a place – they must and they’re not replaced by e-mail, in my mind, they’re on a different level but I can still communicate via email all the emotion and truly, I’d always just use a white blank of paper so as to not pull away focus from my words

I agree with @Simone_De_Beauvoir.

I always tell my design students, “the means of publication and media may change, but the content and all that went into creating that content will never change”.

An effective solution to a visual problem is no less effective in the face of new technology.

A heartfelt letter is no less heartfelt if delivered by new technology.

An effective solution to a visual problem is no less effective in the face of new technology.
Agree

A heartfelt letter is no less heartfelt if delivered by new technology.

Disagree. Effort and extended energy has much to do with what we value.
Case in Point: Happy Birthday cprevite. All the best.
it would be pretty funny if today was his b’day

@SeventhSense Effort and energy are in the words you put, not in the perfume you spray on them.

Lazy fuckers.

@SeventhSense: Whether you wrote “Happy Birthday cprevite. All the best.” on a piece of stationary and mailed it to me or typed it into an eMail does not change the amount of effort or thought put into writing that line. The only additional effort is in placing it in the envelope and mailing it.

That has nothing to do with the content only the presentation. Now you may prefer one presentation (mailed letter) over another (sent eMail), but that neither diminishes or improves the the quality of the content contained therein.

@SeventhSense: (As for your second post)...If you’re gonna resort to mock name calling, I have one for you: Dinosaur. ;^)

Oh, and thank you for the (very) early birthday wishes.

@SeventhSense yeah, lazy has never been a word anyone applied to me…if you knew me, IRL, you’d be unable to utter such a thing