Why Don't We Hand-Write Letters Anymore?

Today’s society is lazy. Society has become consumed in the advancements in technology in that one of the only ways people used to communicate is now a cliche. Formal letter writing has nearly become extinct. Many wonder why that is. Social media has presented itself in a way that minimizes formality in the world. The absence of formal letter writing is destructive towards the professional setting in which the world revolves around.

Technology is a major part of the social, academic, and even the business world. However, the advancements that have been made over the years have increased rapidly and produced devastation in many areas of communication. Social media, for example, is one of the quickest developing forms that is being used to connect with others. The fact that people can use it to communicate limits the use of other various ways to converse that are apparent but not blatantly visible to those that have entered that realm. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are among the many social media sites that contribute to the disappearing of letter writing. The utilization of these sites as a way to communicate is positive and negative. On a positive note, there are more methods to get in touch with those who may be distant. However, due to the outrageous amount of activity on these sites, letter writing has faded and become nearly nonexistent.

In addition to technological advancements, insensitivity has become a large part of the extinction of letter writing. Society has had to conform and adapt to the changes in the world which consist of making everything faster and more efficient. Efficiency is what drives innovation but that does not mean that commodities considered “old fashioned” should completely fade away. Education on formal letter writing provides skills that are necessary for various subjects. For example, formal letter writing contains the skills needed for high school students to write college essays in the admissions process. College essays are formal and are similar to writing letters because students are writing to the colleges to showcase their abilities. Letter writing skills would be helpful so that they can learn to write in first person in a formal way. Despite these benefits, negligence has surfaced and the increase in the speed of technology has corrupted letter writing. People do not want to take the time to write a letter when they can easily contact someone through social media or even a text message.

Another contribution to the extinction of formal letter writing is the price of stamps. Stamp prices are around 49 cents per stamp as of 2014. In 1920 they were 2 cents a piece. As prices rise, the amount of items people are buying is decreasing (whether it is groceries for the week, a necessity that was forgotten about, or a postage stamp). Most do not want to pay ridiculous amounts of money on something that was of lesser value at one point in time. Today, people make more of a conscious effort to spend as little money as possible when purchasing items. The positivity in the absence of letter writing is that the conservation of money has increased so that money is being saved tremendously. However, paying for stamps is a small price to pay to send a letter.

Formal letter writing has deteriorated as social media and technological advancements have appeared to be of the utmost importance. Communicating through social media has caused a decline in formality. The activity that those sites obtain proves that communication has been corrupted. At one time formal letter writing was one of the only ways to correspond with one another. Why should that stop now?