The Value of Handwritten Letters

(All the pictures I found for handwritten letters were in cursive. Hmm...)

 

The last time I received a handwritten letter was during the winter holidays from my friend. That’s actually not too long ago, but in a time when all correspondence goes through the hands of electronics, receiving such a letter is pretty rare. People are living in a time of instant gratification: emails and texts are just so much faster to receive and respond to. As a result, letters seem to be a hassle and a test of patience – something people lack these days, myself included. And even though I received a handwritten letter during the holidays, those kinds of letters are expected during that time. Now, as for a letter that I received in the mail that wasn’t for the holidays or special occasions is probably back in elementary school when I would send letters to friends in another state. Of course, that was before I started using email and obviously before Facebook’s dominance over social networking.

There is definitely sentimental value in handwritten letters. Electronic correspondence (no matter what handwriting font you use) will always be done through a screen. It can’t replace the paper and pen people use to create a letter filled with their thoughts. It’s more personal when people have scribbled their words across the page, with the letters of the words changing with each emotion. There are marks scratching off phrases here and there, squiggles deleting possible misconstrued words… all indications that the writer has taken the time to compose a letter. With that being said, I may start personally writing some letters – it would be interesting to see the reactions of the people who receive them.