When Did People Stop Writing Letters As Part Of Everyday Life?

[jaqcp]

  On 11/22/2012 at 2:30 PM, cvasara said:

  On 11/22/2012 at 2:42 AM, jaqcp said:

I predict that the end of handwritten letters shall not precede me death by more than 2-5 years.

 

Microsoft Word had a pretty big effect on it. Plus the fact that US Postage is at 45¢ for a one ounce letter, and going up another 1¢ in 2013

Since the first forever stamp was issued, The cost of a first class letter has gone up 10.8%, beginning in 2013.

Email, and attachments work much better, faster, and a great dictionary.

 

My point was that as long as I live and am able to manipulate a pen, I will keep writing letters alive. I certainly hope that my last day in this life includes a letter to a loved one.

[iamchum]

I think you could explain the divergence from letter writing in economic terms, rather than simply utilitarian terms, because, basically, emails and letters are now functionally similar (even in legal terms), but economically they are not. Emails are essentially free as they are incidental in the face of the other requirements we have and have to pay for with regards to the internet, whereas letter require a considerable amount of hardware, that not all of us have readily available these days (people this forums is probably more the exception than the rule), not including the cost of transmission. So, while they are functionally similar, the reason (in my useless opinion) why emails in general (there are, of course, outliers to any generalization) seem less personal and and more banal, is because we value them less economically, and, hence, we invest less of ourselves into them, whereas the rising cost of writing and sending letters has meant we have had to reconsider their role within society as an everyday medium of communication. When we do write and send a letter, we do, subconsciously consider the time and cost that has gone into it, and, hence, are significantly more likely to invest ourselves in the product in order to get the most utility out of it (most bang for buck).

 

I don't really include twitter, SMS, or social media in the conversation as, functionally, they are unlike any mediums of transmission we've ever had. Whereas much of the correspondence via email and letters is in long form, we are now able to truncate our lives into bytes and share them with the rest of the world (no matter how banal) - a one to many form of conversational communication. While it is understood that restrictions in message length in these mediums is dictated by bandwidth, the effect of cheap and short one to many transmissions is (considering how both ubiquitous and celebrated they are now) to institutionalize the culture of self-promotion through sheer banality/stupidity - i.e. the cult of the self.

 

Full disclosure - I am a 24 year old PhD researcher, and a lot of my research involves the usage and emotional investment in technology, particularly in virtual social environments. The more I research, the less I enjoy using technology. Maybe I subscribe to essentialism, but, I feel the faster we head down the route of gibson's cyberspace, the less we understand its impacts, and the less we consider what we have left behind. I think we are all far to quick to embrace technological innovations these days, often obsessed with our own ingenuity and blind to the wider social consequences, usually not within our immediate view.

[welch]

My handwriting is so unreadable that I switched to typewritten letters, as much as possible in the '70s. Dropped the typewriter as soon as I had a computer and text editor. I still take notes and write designs with pencil or pen, and refuse to let staff use laptops in meetings. Same with PDA's. If someone is texting or checking emails, they are insulting everyone else in the room. That's not anti-technology: I have worked the the computer business since 1981, starting as an assembly language programmer on 8-bit microcumputers, continuing in the C language. I can read and correct C++ and Java, but usually assign a coder. Debugging and design does not change, although the jargon changes every few years.

 

Haven't received a hand-written letter in about 20 years.

 

Email does force the writer to consider that a recipient can forward an email to the world; emails tend to be less personal, more carefully neutral than letters were.

 

Yes, this is a great loss to historians. It is easy to delete emails, and who knows what text formats will be readable in 75 years...other than ASCII. Even then, storage technology changes, and people (and companies) rarely bother to convert: 5 1/4 inch floppy to 3.5 inch to CD/ROM (700 mb max?) to USB drive...most people won't bother to port Altos documents to PC/DOS word processor, and then to MS Word, and on and on.

 

 

(note: about 12 years ago, my boss and I figured out the long-term off-line storage for all cross-border financial messages. Right down to calculating how many CD/Roms were needed to store transactions and acknowledgements for a single day, plus the shelf space to be used per week...now I'm not sure the company still uses CD's. The technology changes fast. We had wonderful plans to store in two locations. I know that GE stores PDF copies of their monthly bank statements...need to hold them for as long as 20 years. That's a lot of junk. Storing company emails would be worse. Further, companies find it safer to have no records that can become evidence in court. )

Edited November 24, 2012 by welch

[Gryphon]

My problem with technology isn't so much that it's there but that it's become a mad addiction for so many. Many people are constantly walking the streets with a smart phone connected to their hand. Everywhere you go there are people constantly typing on little screens. The fact is constantly inundating oneself with technology gives one less chance to think. The internet can be a good thing as can be the television but need it follow you all over the place and always be in your face? It's not so much that these things are there but it's the amount of time people spend on these things.

 

That being said, I always think of letter writing to be elegant (especially with wax seals) just as antiques are elegant and that is a good thing. Life should not be a mad dash to communicate communicate must be social must be social on and on and on. Humans do need to communicate but there needs to be time between communications that one an sit back without communicating. An example of this would be the slowness of letter writing. Yes it is slow, but what is the hurry?

 

And yes it's good to have technology (as long as we aren't hooked onto it like an IV drip) but I think more letter writing should also be done - I believe if this is done more often human beings will learn to appreciate each other more. Things need to be savored and people need to take more time to do things. Even technology can be savored and enjoyed. It's like cake. If you eat a slice or two of cake slowly and enjoy every bite, it will be a lot more enjoyable than eating a full cake quickly and then demanding another and another till you are sick and not truly happy but still demanding more. And that can apply to anything and it's true. I find myself savoring things more instead of constantly demanding more...it makes life a lot more fun.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Gryphon

[Mags]

I agree, and I feel the digital pen is long overdue in a refillable fountain pen format.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Whenever I read these sorts of complaints about how new electronic media is destroying the art of communication, I am reminded of a column I read in the New York Times bemoaning this very same thing.

 

It seems that with the new technology, anyone can just whip off a message with the most banal, trivial content - nobody writes thoughtful letters anymore like Wordsworth did. The column was from 1917, the new technology being the inexpensive postage stamp, that made it far to easy to just throw a stamp on a letter and send it off. So let us not blame email for the demise of the letter - it was the postage stamp that did it nearly a century before.

 

John

[Harlequin]

One of my New Year's resolutions of the past two years running (starting for 2010) was to start writing letters. I'd never really written any letters, I'm going to assume I'm just too young for that to still have been a normal part of my life. That is, aside from the obligatory, parent-enforced writing of "Thank You" notes after birthdays or Christmas, etc. I unfortunately ran into a problem- I don't like the actual writing very much. On top of that, in someone from my generation's "routine" (a very poor way to say it, I'm not even sure it's clear what I mean), it's an aberration. I had to come to this conclusion: I could write letters to everyone I know, but I could not expect to ever get a letter written back to me. That really puts a damper on the entire activity. You really have to love an activity for itself to perpetually perform it without any type of or encouragement or gratification (by which I mean, getting a letter of your own). For my resolutions of this past year (2011), I once again tried to start writing letters- only with the intent of finding a pen pal. Even with that intent, all of our conversations essentially migrated to email and Facebook, and now not even any email to tell you the truth. I will once again make the same resolution for next year (2013) in the hopes that the ritual of writing with a fountain pen will give me the impetus to continue without resorting to electronic means. Only time will tell though!

[Cognaticrotty]

Not only do my brothers and I, all 5 of us, write letters to one another....we have custom made wax seals with which we seal each envelope. We love doing this, as our parents have before, and theirs as well.

[iamchum]

  On 12/13/2012 at 4:52 AM, Harlequin said:

One of my New Year's resolutions of the past two years running (starting for 2010) was to start writing letters. I'd never really written any letters, I'm going to assume I'm just too young for that to still have been a normal part of my life. That is, aside from the obligatory, parent-enforced writing of "Thank You" notes after birthdays or Christmas, etc. I unfortunately ran into a problem- I don't like the actual writing very much. On top of that, in someone from my generation's "routine" (a very poor way to say it, I'm not even sure it's clear what I mean), it's an aberration. I had to come to this conclusion: I could write letters to everyone I know, but I could not expect to ever get a letter written back to me. That really puts a damper on the entire activity. You really have to love an activity for itself to perpetually perform it without any type of or encouragement or gratification (by which I mean, getting a letter of your own). For my resolutions of this past year (2011), I once again tried to start writing letters- only with the intent of finding a pen pal. Even with that intent, all of our conversations essentially migrated to email and Facebook, and now not even any email to tell you the truth. I will once again make the same resolution for next year (2013) in the hopes that the ritual of writing with a fountain pen will give me the impetus to continue without resorting to electronic means. Only time will tell though!

 

I would try to make the act of writing itself an act of enjoyment. Where you get your kicks by simply putting pen to paper, rather than using it as a means to an end, where the receiving of a letter from someone is the payoff. That way you aren't beholden to anyone and, who knows, just scribbling notes or writing about your day might lead to some cathartic realisation you had no idea you held (that happens to me a lot, you should try it). Eventually, you will be seeking to write everything, even when it is not necessary, because the process of writing is what fulfills you, and not necessarily the completion of it, or the reciprocation.

[Harlequin]

I had thought of that, but I personally have two problems with that outlook, although I'm certainly hoping one is only temporary (judging by past trends though, temporary may be a very long time).

 

The first is that whenever i do write something, it's on whatever paper I have- most often copier paper or notebook paper or post-its or little notepads. The reason for that is cost- I can't bring myself to pay like $8 for a notepad. The idea, to me, is ludicrous. The other part of that is I really don't have $8 for a notepad or journal or anything like that. That part may change one day, but my attitude I simply don't anticipate changing- but maybe the act of writing with a FP will help that as well. I'm worried of course that doing just that, writing with a FP on paper that is not designed to handle it will be more of a hindrance to my enjoyment and turn me off of the experience. Similarly, if I were to go get some paper that is appropriate, I would want to save it and use it only for special things, b/c of it's cost.

 

The second is, for me I think it's ingrained that a pen is for writing things. My training is as an animator, so therefore I over the years my brain has come to automatically switch into a different mode when it comes to what one would consider more "artistic" things like calligraphy, drawing, doodling, or even inking (as in sequential art and illustration). I simply could not use a FP for those tasks, which brings me back to actually writing letters.

 

Now all of these concerns may change as I get to actually write with a FP more, I hope they do, b/c I hope to enjoy my FPs in new ways that I wouldn't normally think of right now.

 

All part of the anticipation, I think. <sigh>

 

 

[Raskolnikov]

  On 12/13/2012 at 6:55 AM, Cognaticrotty said:

Not only do my brothers and I, all 5 of us, write letters to one another....we have custom made wax seals with which we seal each envelope. We love doing this, as our parents have before, and theirs as well.

 

I do that too, at times. Mostly, to my significant one although there's no actual need (we live very very close).

 

Little OT.: I like your avatar image .:

[Cognaticrotty]

  On 12/13/2012 at 2:19 PM, Raskolnikov said:

  On 12/13/2012 at 6:55 AM, Cognaticrotty said:

Not only do my brothers and I, all 5 of us, write letters to one another....we have custom made wax seals with which we seal each envelope. We love doing this, as our parents have before, and theirs as well.

 

I do that too, at times. Mostly, to my significant one although there's no actual need (we live very very close).

 

Little OT.: I like your avatar image .:

Thanks! Yeah my brothers are spread all over the place so we try to write often.

[Anitropius]

I feel that the reasons why hand-written letters have declined in recent years have already been pretty much summed up, but I wish to voice my opinion on the matter.

 

The reason why letters feel more personal to me is because there's so much time put into it. And by that I don't mean just to actually write the letter, but to actually receive a response as well.

 

Let's say that it might take a month for your letter to arrive to who you wish to send it to, and it takes another month to get the response. That means that there will be some serious delay in communication, and because of that you can't waste words. You put down how you're doing, and your feelings and so much else; not just a simple "hello, what's up?" ("nothin much u?" will probably be the resonse, at least i my case :gash: ) as if you would write somebody an instant message online. By taking the time to write something it not only ends up becoming more personal because you picked up a darned pen and put it to the paper; it's the contents and the meaning of the words that makes it a personal thing.

 

Another reason, at least in my own experience, is that because words written in ink can't be easily erased or edited you end up only getting one "chance" to get it right, which makes me push myself sub-counciously to get it "right" the first time around with hopes that it ends up getting good instead of constantly rewriting the same thing again and again - much like I did with this post I will admit. :embarrassed_smile:

 

I like to write letters at any chance I can get, which is admittedly not happening very often. I recently bought and send some pens for people here on the forum and I used that opportunity to write them a little letter along with a sketch of some kind just for the fun of it. I didn't get any response by mail, but I wonder still if the were supprised and/or actually appreciated the gesture even though we never really had a personal contact before.

 

Anyway, that's my opinions on the matter.

[Harlequin]

A couple of the posts right above haver touched on the use of wax seals. I tried that as well back in the mid 90s when I had the first go round with my FP, but I ended up being disappointed. Let me tell you why- the wax always broke off of the envelope! It chipped, or flaked, or pieces of the seal were just flat out broken off totally. I think this has more to do with the way the mail is handled by machinery and delivered than anything else. Have y'all also found that to be the case, or has it improved, or did I just have a rotten run of luck? I would love to seal my envelopes with a nice wax seal when I start writing them again, but based upon my previous experience, I really couldn't justify the cost especially when I suspect that the recipient would never even get to see or have the joy of breaking the seal when the letter finally got to them.

[Cognaticrotty]

Harlequin, I can honestly say that my typical method of sending a sealed letter is enclosing the sealed envelope in another, bigger, envelope. Or just sending it off and hing for the best

[Harlequin]

I never actually thought of that. Seems very simple now, wonder WHY I didn't think of it, lol!

[Cognaticrotty]

  On 12/14/2012 at 2:58 AM, Harlequin said:

I never actually thought of that. Seems very simple now, wonder WHY I didn't think of it, lol!

Lol, I have found that simplicity is the first thing to be overlooked in a solution.

[Letterman]

I'm getting back into letter writing thanks in part to fountain pens and quality paper. I don't have very many people to write to because not very many people have the patience to read a letter. I sometimes deliberately write something short so I don't lose my reader. Correspondence cards are good for that. There's just something so tactile and aesthetic about a letter that you don't get in an email.

[Runnin_Ute]

  On 10/15/2012 at 3:52 PM, Pickwick said:

  On 10/15/2012 at 5:42 AM, Jerome Tarshis said:

First, I agree that relatively cheap and convenient long-distance telephony played a large part in the decline of letter-writing. But that suggests to me, at least, that many of the people who had been writing the letters were not greatly motivated by the thrill of writing by hand with water-based ink, the urge to literate expression, or other such high-minded things. They were using the hand-written letter as a means to an end, and although some of the surviving letters can seem magical, many others, I'd guess many more, can seem pedestrian. When there was an easier way to keep in touch, people adopted it, because that was exactly what they'd wanted to do, keep in touch.

 

The same was true of ball-point pens: people who had written with fountain pens all their lives, people who were in no way lacking in FP experience, thought the ballpoint offered the better way to write.

 

Second, in my circle of acquaintance if not in everyone's, email has been the salvation of letter-writing. Certainly in my family. People who had long since stopped writing letters, whether by hand or on the typewriter, suddenly became copious and expressive. My sister's wit, long remembered from when we were both young, has been brought out once again by electronic correspondence. People who would absolutely not write me a letter on paper will write me lovely eletters.

 

People with whom I have what could be the most perfunctory kind of relationship, or none at all, such as those who send me electronic press releases, rise to the occasion when I send them considered replies. People in their twenties, some of them. If there's any one thing in my life that discourages an old man's brooding on the death of everything worthwhile, it is the way email has brought me exchanges of letters whose equal I could not have expected in the 1950s. I'm sorry for those who haven't been similarly blessed.

 

Taking into consideration that you are from the same generation as I am. Your comment about considered replies is significant in the fact that your correspondents give thought to what they are about to write.

 

This is important in any form of correspondence. Unless we do send considered replies then there is the danger of our message being misconstrued, and the recipient could overreact and return an offensive reply. Because this is an extremely fast and useful means to communicate more self control is needed.

 

The most common problem with this electronic communication is editing, and a lot of individuals press the send button and the message can no longer be retrieved.

 

This is shown up in some of these forums where arguments get heated up and some individuals respond without considering their reply, and go on adding further controversial fuel until a moderator has to bring it to a halt!

 

I am close enough in age (mid 50's) that I have watched this evolution as well. The time in my life when I was most prolific with the pen in terms of letter writing was a period of time between October 1979 and September 1981 when I was many hundreds of miles away from my family and because of circumstances other than a couple of times a year, if I were to communicate in any manner with my loved ones it was to be by letter. Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day were really the only times I had to speak with family. Not because I didn't have access to a telephone, just because of certain rules I had committed to observing that is when I could speak to my family. I wrote letters weekly.

 

A young lady I had dated for a period of time before then I wrote to weekly as well. One day after I had come home, met someone else and married she returned those letters. (she enlisted in the US Air Force while I was gone. She was 18 when I met her - I was 21, we dated for a while then I was leaving for two years.) I have in them in my basement. I haven't read them since the day they were written. I need to go through them and put together a detailed personal history of that time period. They were pretty much all written with a ballpoint. Likely a Parker - probably a Jotter. A Parker is still my favorite ballpoint.

[Runnin_Ute]

Another thing - writing a handwritten thank you after a job interview. Inexpensive to get nice thank you cards with blank insides so you can write whatever you want. Do it with a FP versus a BP - guess which gets remembered first? Maybe even kept.