Technology has changed the love letter. (As if you didn’t already know.)
A new literacy has emerged, that of text messaging. Think of the teen or young adult you know best. What do they spend most of their time doing? Does it involve limber thumbs? Text messaging or chat perhaps?
Digital communication has its own literacy. Your average young person is more likely to text or email their Valentine this year than send it through the mail. Here’s why.
The world of communication has speeded up. Individuals under the age of thirty nowadays have a more immediate need for feedback from their beloved than they did ten, or even five years ago. The US Postal Service, UPS, Fed Express, what have you, just can’t measure up. And that is the crucial difference. Gone are the days of waiting for a phone call or letter response. Things happen much faster now. Good or bad, it’s the way of the world.
This has led to an evolution in romantic communication. Remember when you wrote “love letters”? Remember when you had things you could actually bind up in ribbon without having to print out?
Don’t get me wrong… I don’t hold one over the other. I am more likely to email my beloved than sit down and write out my feelings. ……….
It’s so much easier to express yourself in print, digitally or otherwise. And, hey, it’s less expensive than buying a card or pretty stationery.
Some hold text messaging and chat on the same playing field as written love letters. There are even texted marriage proposals. Can you imagine?
Well, for those of you who just long for the “olden days,” read Love Letters Lost, by Babbette Hines.
It’s a throwback to the “olden” days of romance.
Read it or Weep 