Rediscover The Lost Art Of Letter Writing

Posted by R. Nichols on

In an increasingly tech-savvy era, sometimes we end up taking the little things for granted.

Advancements in technology have forged connections across the world that tie us closer together than ever before, revolutionizing what it means to communicate. We can interact with our loved ones from a thousand miles away through FaceTime and Skype. We can text at any moment. We can communicate with each other in one click, and we don’t even think twice about it. While these innovations have undeniably improved our lives in many ways, they’ve also overshadowed what we believe is an exceptionally important form of correspondence: Letters. Handwritten, paper letters. Cards. Notes. Snail Mail.

On first glance, letter or note writing may seem slow, outdated and quaint, but it’s both a tangible and resilient means of emotional connection. And who doesn't feel just a little guilty when they throw away handwritten correspondence notes?

Far more than nostalgic indulgence, sending a letter recaptures the way people should communicate in a digitally flooded age, reviving our experience of one-to-one communication. Oh, the prestige of being the sole recipient of someone’s hand-written, hand-mailed efforts (as opposed to being one of any number of ‘friends’ and ‘followers’)!

These days, everything seems to happen on a screen -- emails pile up, texts come and go, endless posts seem bottomless, and information crisscrosses its way all over. Often, it’s easy and even normal for these things to get lost or erased. The majority of correspondence is forgotten, which just goes to show how all of these technological “advancements” have also debilitated our communication.

When we write and receive letters, we actually get to physically hold on to those words -- we have a tangible paper copy, a record, proof. Unlike texts, paper letters are so wonderful because you can always go back and reread them, which sometimes feels like living the entire message all over again. There’s something uniquely profound about being able to reread a letter someone sent you, just to hear their voice in the words again, and picture how they’d say each of the phrases.

In this sense, letters are like historical artifacts. When we save and treasure them, we preserve a part of that person, their words, and their relationship to us. And there’s something quite beautiful about that. Museums around the globe exhibit handwritten letters as some of the most celebrated artifacts in their collections. History lives on through those letters, and the ones we write are the same. Can’t you see yourself rereading a letter someone wrote to you after that person is gone? Can’t you see yourself smiling? Anything that can inspire those kinds of feelings is worthwhile, and that is precisely what a simple little letter can do.

We hope this has inspired you to want to pick up that pen or pencil and think about who you’ll be sending a personal letter to, and why not do it on some beautiful stationery?

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