Is anyone here into letter writing?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I used to write letters to some of my friends, but that practice has died off and I miss it.

It probably wouldn’t be prudent to send your physical address to a stranger on the Internet, but maybe an email address would be okay.

If anyone would be interested in some one-on-one, in-depth interactions, PM me your email address and maybe we could become virtual penpals! (Friendship ONLY.)

To make this into a discussion topic, which only seems fair since I’m posting on a message board meant to prompt discussions: It’s social media and general online communication that made me crave letter writing. I feel like a lot of communication these days requires very little time and attention. Someone leaves a comment and you can skim over it and pen a quick response in the time it takes a light to change from red to green. When I wrote letters, you actually took the time to clear your thoughts, focus, and go in-depth on a topic. I’ve also noticed that it’s really hard to form a connection with people when you’re communicating in a group setting. I’ve formed much stronger friendships and connections with people when I communicate with them one-on-one, which is hard to do when using social media.

Can anyone else relate? Or offer their own reasons why they like (or hate) letter writing?

2

I know exactly what you mean. I think that the letter writing I did in my youth helped me to write better papers and get better grades in college. I kept writing letters to overseas friends and my parents (they retired to AZ) was a great way to tell them what was up with me, especially because my mother had poor eyesight and used that as an excuse to not learn how to send or receive email.

For anyone who wishes to be any kind of writer (business, technical, reporter, novelist), this could be a great opportunity to practice a skill as well as to get to know someone.

3

Same here, absolutely. I still have the letters that several friends wrote to me in the '70s through '90s before email killed the personal letter.

I still write real personal notes in Christmas cards, and sometimes postcards, but I haven’t written a real letter to a friend in years. By gum, that’s gonna change this week. I hope I don’t give any of them a heart attack from the shock.

4

I hated writing letters as a kid. I would use an ink pen and make tons of mistakes that I had to cross out. It took forever and would look like a mess when I was finished. I took typing in junior high school and never wrote another letter again…