In the World of Instant Messages, be someones Handwritten Letter
- Sharanya Shenoy
- Jul 22, 2020
- 3 min read
“You have got a mail!” Well growing up in the pre-internet era, this five-letter word would excite every teenager.
The curiosity of ‘connecting to the internet’ Via Dialup, logging into one of the email account ( MSN,Hotmail, Yahoo), and finding out who sent you a mail was a different level of adventure. Those were the days…sigh! Today all I find is bank statements, taxes, and a pile of junk notifications! Yes, its true, over the recent decades, written communication has evolved drastically— from writing handwritten letters to the popularity of emails, we are now living in the generation of having a conversation through a phone that tells you every time a process of the dialogue has been completed.
Even though many of the workplaces still have their formal communication through Emails, are becoming less important. People don't respond--or they take forever to respond (which is sort of the same thing). A discussion starts piling into multiple threads with multiple people and no one can make any sense of it anymore!! You see with the number of apps available on the smartphones, we tend to always send a text or a chat for an immediate response rather than waiting for someone to check out a mail and then reply. Forget colleagues even friends send you a ‘DM’ / ‘IM’ rather than an email to check up on you. I mean why would they? After all its natural to quickly typing out our message and response isn’t it?
Let’s go back a few more decades, the time when people actually sat around and wrote letters. Yes, they would set aside time in their day to write about their life and times to someone. When my dad's father died a few weeks ago, while clearing out house, among his clutter was a collection of greeting cards, letters, and even photos preserved carefully. From a drawing, I had made for them when I was 3 to birthday greetings from my cousins to family holiday postcards. It felt like a nostalgic trip down the memory lane.
Coming to think about it, it feels like a grand gesture if someone sends me a handwritten letter or even an Email. This shows that someone took their time and spent their energy to share something for you. The fact that they thought about you and shared their feeling with great emotional depth, makes you feel special doesn’t it? Sending or receiving a letter is like giving out a tiny piece of yourself.
It is said that receiving letters of any form unfolds emotions that no Instant messages or screenshot can give. Unlike screenshots and online messages, re-reading the messages gives the feeling of hearing their voices in their words. And just like a photograph, a letter preserves a part of their memory with you, like freezing times.But in this modern world, it has become essential to keep up with fast-paced instant communication. Though WhatsApp and IMs have made it easier, haven’t they really been healthy all the time. There are times when people are online, read the messages, and yet they don’t reply. Doesn’t that sometimes make anyone paranoid?Honestly, I am not against instant messaging, but aren’t we slowly forgetting about the art of letter writing? It may sound old fashioned but in this modern era, it’s the best gift one can give or receive. I don’t think any single person would deny that little joy to enjoy receiving a letter through the post.
Comments