Our opinions matter. Our feelings need to be listened to and empathized with. Our thoughts and emotions need to be outward reflections of who we are. However, this "open letter" trend is doing nothing besides showing our friends that we have the audacity and edge to write letters to recipients perceived as bigger than ourselves.

Open letters aren’t a new fad at all. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous open letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963. In 2005, Bobby Henderson wrote his open letter to the Kansas School Board, arguing that, “If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith."

These open letters were written by people who had important things to say. The authors had the contextual background with which to make their rhetoric impactfully slam into the relevant readership. Sadly, Obama doesn’t have time to read your Facebook-posted list of reasons why we should have reelected George Bush. Starbucks probably doesn’t care that you think they hate Jesus.

I am arguing that open letters are not getting to whom they are addressed. We are wasting our time.

Here is my proposition: instead of sharing our open letters with irrelevant readership, let’s actually send them. When was the last time you got a letter in the mail? I propose that we actually write our cheeky criticisms or long-winded love letters on paper, address them to the intended participants, slap some floral stamps on those bad boys and mail those suckers!

It’s fun to open mail addressed to yourself (bills and ransom notes excluded). If you send your letter in the mail, we could save the post offices. If we mailed Daniel Radcliffe this open letter, he might even get to know how much we all still love and adore him. He is the chosen one after all. (Swoon.)

So the next time you want to write an open letter to your soul mate, why don’t you make their day and send them a cute letter detailing all the reasons you are crazy for them. A handwritten love confession can be saved in a memorial shoe box stashed under a bed forever. Think of all the nostalgia your soul mate is feeling while looking at the nice letters you wrote her all those years back. The possibilities for romance are endless.

I’ll bet Justin Beiber doesn’t read the listicles detailing the 20 reasons we should love him. In fact, he actually probably doesn’t read the letters he gets either, but hey, he probably keeps all of them in storage as a raw resource in case the zombie apocalypse happens. If he gets a lot of letters, he could contract groupies to build a defensive letter-fort. If a super-typhoon forces all of us to tread for our lives, Justin could build an ark out of letters and take his Beliebers to a biblically ironic future. Never say never? Instead of writing about him online, send him a few letters. We want him to survive the potential super-typhoon right?

Maybe that is the problem, though; we aren't the people getting the media’s daily attention. If we want to make big statements to the people who know our only option is social media, we have to share. We all have big ideas, and by sharing them on Facebook or Instagram, we can share them with the people who care about us.

Sure, if we wrote letters to people, we could stimulate the postal economy and hopefully enjoy opening some handwritten mail of our own. But if we want to aspire to be change-makers like Martin Luther King Jr. or Bobby Henderson, writing a few open letters here and there is a sure-footed start. Not all open letters are going to be as topical or impactful as the Reverend King’s. Not all of them are going to be read by their intended audiences. However, the open letters we write and share are seen by our friends and family. Maybe making a few friends laugh happily and think critically is more important than making headlines. It's the small things, right?

I began writing this article with contempt for open letters. I thought they were a superficial way to share our thoughts and ideas. I thought that people should just be open about everything all the time -- we should celebrate our unique selves every moment, right?

Then, I began writing. I started to look at open letters written to themselves, the author, promising self-betterment and a brighter tomorrow. I read open letters to family members. Some publicly declared love in all circumstances, while others hysterically recounted a funny reunion. And I definitely was moved by some of them.

Open letters allow us to shout out our emotions to the world. “I’m in a store and I’m singing. I’m in a store and I’m singing, I’m in a store and I’m SING-ING!" If Buddy the Elf can sing loudly in a store because that is the best way to spread Christmas cheer, I can think of some open letters that I would like to write.

Game on.