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Mostly Cloudy Write it, seal it, stamp it and mail it
I wish to make a modest proposal. Sometime in the next week, please write a letter. I want to prove that most of us have not lost the capacity and the will to compose our thoughts and commit them to paper, in our own hand, using a real pen.
There are children born in the last few years who may never receive a real letter written by a fellow human being. In a cultural shift that has been swift and definitive, e-mail has replaced letter writing as a means of interpersonal communication. In his book “The Tyranny of E-mail,” John Freeman laments the disproportionate presence of e-mail in our lives. He speaks of hundreds of daily e-mails and group dispatches and spam messages that clog our inboxes and suck up our time.
With the advent of e-mail, much has been gained in terms of instant communication and wider contact with people in our lives, but so much has been lost. E-mail itself has degraded the English language. Grammar and spelling are irrelevant. The exchanges are quick and abbreviated and concise. You don’t need much command of the language to compose an e-mail.
I love e-mail in its place but I deplore its abuse and the fact that it has replaced real writing. Mostly I lament the passing of the letter. I know, I know, people worried that the postcard and the telegraph would spell the end of letter-writing, but I have a feeling that e-mail is really obliterating the desire, the ability and need to write letters.
The loss is multi-leveled. First, there is the process of letter-writing, which requires organized thinking, careful composition and a certain facility with the language. Like the body’s appendix, these abilities are becoming vestigial.
Next, there is the time factor. Letters take time to compose, time to travel and time to read. There is ample room to contemplate what one wants to say and how. Therefore, communication tends to be more reasoned and moderate. E-mails are instant and require very little preparation. Hit the send button and they’re gone.
