Letters Vs. Digital

In today's society, technology has pretty much taken over a lot of things we can do by hand and contacting people who may live in a completely other country no longer takes months but simply a click away. I'm not saying that that is not ideal or convenient. However, we lose something unique and precious too as well aren't we? Maybe it's just me and my weirdness; however, I'm a huge lover of writing actual letters to friends who are even in the same city as I am. 

Many friends react with 'What is wrong with you? Why are you wasting stamps when someone is less than a text, call or email away?' Well, I can't change their views or them, but I can say waiting for a letter response from someone brings me the greatest joy. That anxiety, the wonder of how they'll respond, the touch of the letter under your fingers when you retrieve it from your mailbox and so much more. 

Those are really precious moments for me. I love gently opening an envelope and pulling out that bundle of paper of handwritten penmanship. I love holding the paper close to my nose and hopefully pick up their scent somewhere along it. I treat every letter I receive as a newborn baby. I love taking my time leisurely to read the letters and trace my fingers over their writing to see how hardly they had pressed down onto the paper. 

All the letters I ever receive are all tucked carefully in a gift box I got a few years ago. Every so often I have a habit of pulling them out and just read them again and again. It helps me recall the memories, the friendship, the moments we shared and I feel it strengths our bond as well. 

Technology is of course more convenient and faster. There is sadly a lack of the physicalness of being able to touch their words on paper and to smell the stationary on which it's written. If something happened to your phone, to your email account causing all those saved emails and text messages to be lost then that's that. Lost forever in the abyss of the technological world. Handwritten letters would never be lost unless your room catches on fire or you drop them in the toilet. 

I would not give up traditional letters any day nor would I ever.