Does anyone still write letters?

[col]

I think emails are an easy or even lazy solution when it comes to personal things like cards,there isnt really any effort needed at all is there,i much prefer to send or recieve real cards,there has been some thought or effort,which makes a difference i feel?

 

[Baggy]

It's always lovely to receive a handwritten letter or card, but I've also had some wonderful emails, which I treasure.

As long as the sentiment is genuine I don't really care what format it arrives in. My Dad sends me some excellent emails, but he'd never write me a letter.

 

[Noodley]

I think emails are an easy or even lazy solution when it comes to personal things like cards,there isnt really any effort needed at all is there,i much prefer to send or recieve real cards,there has been some thought or effort,which makes a difference i feel?

There can be a spontaneous moment to e-mails or texts though. Something springs into your head and you think "I'll send them a message to let them know what I'm thinking or that I'm thinking about them". Rather than "I know, I'll go home tonight, compose a letter, make sure it is aligned, then seal the envelope with candle wax, and take it to the GPO for one of these new-fangled penny black things..."

 

[col]

There can be a spontaneous moment to e-mails or texts though. Something springs into your head and you think "I'll send them a message to let them know what I'm thinking or that I'm thinking about them". Rather than "I know, I'll go home tonight, compose a letter, make sure it is aligned, then seal the envelope with candle wax, and take it to the GPO for one of these new-fangled penny black things..."

True emails can be good,but if i was sent a birthday card,those ones that play a cartoon with a message by email,instead of a real one in the post,id be a little dissapointed,i like to keep cards that mean something,i dont think you can with electronic ones?

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm old enough to remember the days when your heart lifted rather than fell at the sight of envelopes on the door mat. It once meant letters, now it just means bills and officialdom. But having said that, I took to emails like a fish to water, partly for their immediacy, partly because they make it so easy to pass on 'found' stuff that you think others will like, but perhaps most of all because of the way they take all the hex off communicating with people. I remember so many people I lost touch with in the letter age, simply because Writing A Letter was such a big deal. 'Do I have enough to say to write a whole letter?' Now you can just fire off a one-liner at the drop of a hat. Spontaneity. Love it.

Hate email birthday/Christmas cards though.

 

[Perfect Virgo]

I still have half a dozen living relatives who are older than me and who live up cart tracks well off the Information Superhighway. We exchange the occasional hand-written letter and I thoroughly enjoy it. However, at the current rate of usage, my Parker will last forever. It's a slow, inefficient (and at times barely decipherable) method of communication but I will mourn the loss of its personal touch when it slips away for good.

I still send fully punctuated and grammatically correct email messages but the responses are often peppered with "text speak" and jive talk! I have no trouble understanding their meaning but think it's a shame a wider range of vocabulary isn't used. But maybe that's the point, letters are formal, emails less so. At least the English language is all-embracing and there are versions for all of us. I am sure the more traditional styles will cling on, in digital form if not in written!

I have a foot in both camps because, like many of us, I buy my music, film and books online and love the immediacy of email. However I will be sending "change of postal address" notices by Post Card next month when I return to England from Canada. Just in time for Christmas cards!

 

[Noodley]

....persoanl touch.... when it slips away for good.

I still send fully punctuated and grammatically correct email...

You really set yourself up.....

 

[Perfect Virgo]

Did I mention spelling? No!

 

[Andy in Sig]

I mostly email but have one correspondent to whom I send about four letters a year but they are proper fountain pen, eight page jobs and it is a pleasure to write them. Otherwise I never used to write letters so the internet has actually increased the amoung of communication I do.

 

[wafflycat]

Loads of business letter correspondence in & out of Chez Wafflycat. A plus to email is that it does make it easier to keep in contact with folk due to the instantaneous nature of it - especially out here in the sticks where there's a shortage of post offices.