An Open Letter To The Trend of 'Open Letters'

To “Open Letters,”

I admit that there’s always been an appeal to the idea of you. You serve as an anonymous means of communication, ways in which we’re able to address people under the guise of tackling general topics. Because of your nebulous recipients, people are able to associate with you easily, throwing up a quick “amen” or “same” in response to how efficiently you spoke to the problems which gnaw at the hearts of most people in the modern world. You connect with the average reader, pull at the heartstrings of the empathic and apathetic alike, and speak for those who are often too afraid to give words to their own feelings.

But I have to ask, or rather urge you to ask yourself; are you worth the time spent reading you? Are you more important than the other articles I could be reading, texts of journalistic integrity which deal with the truly pressing matters? A pretty typeface and a quirky voice are all fine and dandy, but do they really hold up in the absence of timeliness and political relevancy? As I’ve skimmed through post after post under your format, my initial enamourment with your premise has given way to a foreboding sense that your style simply doesn’t reach into the realm of substantiality and value.

I don’t mean to be rude, of course. It may just be a matter as a simple as “it’s not you, it’s me.” It’s just that in an age like this, when society finds itself challenged more than ever in its struggle to grow beyond the phantom of its past, I find myself wanting to read of things more informative than “an open letter to my ex-boyfriend,” or “an open letter to my fraternity brothers.” I need to know that the people of my generation are concerned with the lives of those living in war torn countries abroad, and the inequalities which face the disadvantaged and underprivileged people of our own nations. I want to see articles that dive into the heart of other people’s problems, problems of terrifying immensity and alien in their nature, rather than the typical, often trivial matters that the people in the first world experience on a daily basis. Most of all, I want to know that the world is in the hands of people who will fix the mistakes of the past, rather than repeat them under the illusion of making a difference.

So excuse me for saying this, but I’m a bit tired of you. You were unique, you were funny, but now you’re overdone and just a bit tacky. It’s time to step out of the limelight, and let other articles with something bigger to say take your place.